Truth Wanders
by NeverComeTrue
Summary: Wisteria houses are dutied to selflessly serve demon slayers without refusal. After the reopening of the most influential wisteria house, the Fujido Estate, the soon to be head of the household, Fujido Iena, must prepare for future arrivals of demon slayers despite her disdain for them. The night three strange demon slayers come to the manor's gate, her life takes a different path.
1. Chapter 1: The First Three

This** is my first ever fanfic. I've decided to expand my horizon from reader to writer. Why not start with my favorite anime/manga at the moment: Kimetsu no Yaiba.**

**This fanfic will expand more on Wisteria houses in the series and the effect they have on the Demon Corps and the demon world. This story will also have tiny bits of historical facts sprinkled here and there, but this is no way a historical fiction! **

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge. Wish it was. God and jail said no. Brilliant**

* * *

_**Chapter 1: The First Three**_

* * *

_**It's unfair to have someone else's blood on your conscience. It made things harder to forget than regret. Forgetting made things happier and no longer did she want to turn her back on tomorrow after a while. Mornings made her a different person from yesterday. It was freeing, so freeing to know anything could be lost if she tried hard enough. She does not pretend to herself that's the truth. It's been so in her head.**_

_**Time does not heal. It takes the hours, the days and the years and leaves the minutes and seconds as scraps. When you're none the wiser, seven years have been chewed and swallowed and nothing is left but shock and confusion.**_

* * *

"Iena-san." A frail voice appears through the slim crack of the *_shoji. _The door slides open, a spotted, wrinkled hand resting on the edges. The elderly woman steps into the room, polished in a big bun and a sunset kimono. Nana, her face small and harmoniously still, shuffles lightly across the wooden floor to the young teen of the house; a girl busy over grinding bowls and in it herbs she picked from the mountain not so far off from home.

With utmost respect, while the teen had instructed her to leave the honorifics when addressing her, it's still habitual for Nana to draw her hands together and bow for she's only a housekeeper.

The room is appropriately lit for perfect eyesight, lamps not too bright, but not too dull. It's much needed for what the girl is intensely focused on. The old woman doesn't pester her much, especially when it comes to devising formulas from the herbs the girl gathers from the wilderness, however the message she has received has to be said no matter if the girl likes it or not.

"Iena. A messenger crow has given word that three demon slayers will be resting here. They're expected to come at nightfall."

The girl listens, but makes not one move from the news received.

Fujido Iena continues her medicinal recipe for her aunt who has been having frequent coughs lately. The recipe is taxing to make and most of her attention stays on her finishing the procedures. She didn't venture straight into the spine of Hokori Mountain for nothing, and while she's attuned to going up and down that mountain to hunt and gather herbs, it's short of easy. There are a limited number of crude herbs to be selected in extraordinary patterns, and she hasn't prepared the peony decoction yet. Accommodating demon hunters isn't worthy of her worries.

"Nana, I'm busy making Komi-oba her medicine. Preparations for those people will have to wait," Iena replies, lips in a tight, thin line.

"We have to prepare for their arrival. Night is soon to come. They'll be hungry and tired."

"Komi-oba is hungry and tired." Iena quickly follows up. She surveys her *_keishi-to_ and decides it's good enough to mix with the jujube. Komi-oba has to be hungry. She hasn't had a proper meal since this morning before her business meeting with Fukuzawa-san and Tsukabe-san, a business meeting she was forced to attend. Voices over other voices, conversations about percentages and profits became mere sound and another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow as well with only Tsukabe-san.

"Iena-_sama."_ Iena stops everything. Her face loses focus and is left blank. "You must welcome them. They're the first group of demon slayers to come after we reopened our gates."

"Near a week ago." Iena shakes her head. "Rumors spread quickly, don't they?"

Nana nods. "I do agree." She gives time to speak again, a pause needed or appreciated, but no matter which one it is, Iena sits through it. "It's been a very long time but you, as the successor to the Fujido Estate, have to greet guests." A simple concept the girl refuses to grasp.

Iena chews on empty air, eyes open at the barest amount, her chin resting on the heel of her right hand.

"Now, please refresh yourself while I'll prepare for their stay."

Nana quietly walks out the room. She's right. Night is arriving soon, and like the proper future heiress she will never be, must greet them with all the loyalties the Fujido Estate has to provide for these demon slayers. Iena has no desire to grant pleasantries between any demon slayers to be frank. What was Komi-oba thinking when she made the choice to reopen their home to those squatters?

"Nana may have already told her." Iena sighs, a sense of uneasiness coming to her, and knowing how much this feeling meant, all she can do is stay near her herbs and wait.

* * *

Nana passes on a message from Komi-oba: 'My sweet, stubborn niece. Service the demon hunters or all of your plants will become trash. No hiking for a week if you disappoint. I'll take my medicine once all of the hunters have eaten and are in bed. Please make them your delicious sweet milk bread and save a piece for your pretty aunt.'

Iena can't refuse, not her aunt who's in the master room trying to stay healthy being the matriarch. Stress will worsen her condition and Iena won't allow it. So, she sucks it up and gets to work on baking the bread. Nana had already cooked dinner, fetched _yukata_ sleepwear for them and spread their *_futons_ . Pastry and tea is her responsibility, she supposes.

As the lemongrass milk tea boils and the bread rises, Iena's mind moves so quickly through feelings and ideas, but the dread on her face reflects a life rushing by faster that she could make sense. They're the first group of demon hunters to come after the seven year ban and so fast too.

"Darn it. Only three nights they get then they'll leave. I don't care if Komi-oba disagrees." Lie. She cares a lot and her herbs are on the line.

The sky doesn't last long when day crumbles and night stands.

Iena's in a wisteria scattered yukata and is waiting inside the manor while Nana is outside beyond the *_agari-kamachi _waiting for the squatters to arrive. Iena wears her long, pendulum-like wisteria earrings that she forgot to put back on after washing her face after some splattered herb paste. Iena rubs the top of her white hair, calmly breathes.

Several muffled footsteps approaches. Nana and them are close to her. Iena tries to overcome the shadows lining her forehead, that naïve feeling that maybe she will derive some joy caring for the people who occasionally keep the nightly streets safe from the devils whom persistently lurk again. That is what her clan established it to be.

The door opens and the creek sounds so sorrowful.

"Tanjiro, I'm telling you she's a monster! That old lady is a monster! She moves too fast to be normal! How did she get to the top of the stairs so fast, can you explain that 'cause I can't! Old monster lady—"

"Stop it already!" WHACK!

And the sorrow flees.

Iena is stunned by the demon hunters whom enter the house in a heap of stupid noise. Because of it, she's late to catch that one of them called Nana a monster. When it hits, her eyes, color of the very wisteria swaying in the garden, sharpens. Flowers then fiercely wrap her body. They appear like different beats of lightning strikes, and in specific bunch.

Petunia: _Anger_

Yellow Carnations: _Disdain_

Of course, they can't see the flowers, but they're here at full bloom.

Nana, maybe noticing Iena's eye twitch, turns to the boys and hastily ushers them along. Nonetheless, Iena bows. She demands herself to lower the heat of her emotions, to think without the family blood bursting at her temples.

"Good evening, demon slayers. I am Fujido Iena, heiress of the Wisteria Estate. Welcome to our home. Please come inside. Your meals and your bed have already been made. A bath will be prepared before your evening dinner." She finishes with a bow.

The least expected happens.

G-GODDESS!" The blond hunter shouts with a huge red blush on his cheeks.

He suddenly rushes to her and produces a flower from nowhere and gives it to her. "I, Agatsuma Zenitsu, asks for your hand in marriage!"

"W-W-what...?" Iena stutters, blinking in surprise.

The burgundy haired boy, called Tanjiro by the blond one, hits him on the head again. "Enough!" He then looks at her with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about that. I'm Kamado Tanjiro. And he's," he points at the guy with a **boar's head** covering his face. Iena tries to hide her face of disgust, "Hashibira Inosuke. Thank you for allowing us to stay in your home." He bows.

While the behavior of his blond companion is unacceptable, Tanjiro has to admit the girl in front of him is a beauty. She looks like she's around his age. She has nice, smooth white skin, pretty hair, white at the top and a glowing shade of pinkish-purple at the bottom, a color he can describe or is close to wisteria flowers. Her eyes match it too. She's polite as well.

But...

Tanjiro sniffs the air. His earlier thought is right.

She has an uninviting presence. Despite her polished look and her words of welcome, this is forced interaction smothering a not so friendly vibe. Yes, it must be her obligation to treat them with kindness and hospitality, but there's something deep rooted within her, he can tell.

However, the girl and the old woman are providing shelter for him and his friends so he won't dwell on it.

Nana hides her giggles behind a sleeve of her *_kimono. _"You _are _at an appropriate age for marriage."

Iena gives Nana the stink eye before she forcefully pleads her mind to forget what just happened not a second ago. "Please come in."

"She's fast, but weak," The boar head randomly says poking Nana's head. Iena scowls at the boy while the old woman just laughs it off.

The minute the boys pass, Iena's breath is almost knocked clean from her lungs. Her eyes become large and lips drastically dry. It's an intense tapping to her temple. A sense. A difference in the air, in feel, uncanny and palpable. People give off a distinctive aura no matter the state they're in. To Iena, it's lukewarm, light and has a small beating like a hidden heart.

When that boy Tanjiro walked by her, the aura turned heavy and there was no beating. Just silence.

Komi-oba has a similar sense.

She told her if she ever felt the latter, it means danger because humans don't give off something like that.

**A demon.**

How? The manor is flooded with wisteria trees. There's no way.

She watches them as they enter her home with a sour face. It's the box. It has to be the box without a doubt.

How and why is a demon slayer carrying around a demon? It has to be one of the most unfathomable of things. Such a dangerous contradiction screwing with the mind.

He brings danger to her home where Nana and Komi-oba are at and he does it so brazenly.

A new flower comes and blends with the petunias. Lavender.

Lavender: _Cautious. Distrust_

* * *

Nana had a silly idea to have all the demon slayers settle in one room. The many rooms that sit like empty pockets in the house, she chooses one for three boys to stay. Not that they mind. They were awed by the place and had wandering eyes when Nana led them to their one room.

Iena asks the old woman for a reason and she just puts it off as boys are closer when they're bare and together. The same applies to girls apparently.

The way she said did not sit well with Iena.

While Nana caters to the three demon slayers, Iena heads upstairs to Komi's room. The woman has remained tucked in her room sick and undoubtedly lonely, but she'll never voice it. Komi knows she can't hide it from Iena either. Iena can see her flowers too. Most times, they'll be pink carnations, representing Komi-oba's love. Her gratitude sprouts bluebells when Iena hands her medicine. Her thoughtful and caring side brings pansies to Iena's face.

However, sometimes Iena sees erikas.

Erika: _Solitude_

Sometimes she gets too sick to even go outside, and since most times Iena is in Hokori Mountain and Nana is full with chores, Iena guesses her aunt feels a bit lonely.

Iena reaches her aunt's room and slowly opens the door. Komi's in her bed, relaxed in refined and crepe silks of contrasting textures, layered in complementary shades of red to white. Her hair is down and it covers her back like a lovely black robe made with the upmost care. She's also in a _yukata_, blue, ranging from the brightness of a high mountain pool to the near black of the evening.

Her eyes look off into an imaginary distance with an expression of imminent pleased surprise, and Iena wonders what the expression means before she opens her mouth to talk.

Komi turns to face her and smiles. "Look at my beautiful niece." She then dawns a playful smirk. "With the way you're dressed, I'd presume you're trying to court someone."

"Don't start the teasing, Komi-oba. Your 'sweet, stubborn niece' is following orders because she doesn't want the herbs she's spent hours looking for while getting eaten alive by ugly bugs to end up in the trash!"

Her aunt laughs like a hearty old man. "Then be on your best behavior. Don't make our guests uncomfortable."

Realizing the main reason she hurried to her aunt's room, Iena shakes her head emphatically. Petunias and yellow carnations and lavender return as she grits her teeth. "No, Komi-oba! They need to leave now! They're putting all of us in danger!"

"Iena."

"One of them has a demon with them, **a demon** that can kill everyone in **seconds**! A demon hunter hiding a demon! What kind of st—"

"Iena, I know."

This stops the girl in her tracks. Her rant comes to a deafening close and the only thing she can do is stare at Komi. Her mind stutters for a moment and her eyes take in more light than expected. Every part of her pauses while her thoughts catch up to what her aunt said.

_"What?" _Truffles and begonias create a barrier on her skin.

Truffles: _Shock_

Begonia: _Beware_

Iena doesn't say a word.

"As soon they came inside, I sensed it."

Now, this is shaking Iena to her core. As soon as they reopen after so many years, demon hunters are already endangering the place with a selfish ploy, and Komi-oba is allowing it?

Iena's breath quickens. Time is no longer being measured in an orderly world. It's not constant. It lies. Reality is lying to her. She knows it is; each rapid breath she takes and lets go is a beating tick tock from present to past, past to present. A worried Komi-oba is there, a tick, then she's not anymore and she see multiple house workers, not old at all like Nana there, fixing up Komi's room. There's another woman in the bed overseeing their work. A tock, her aunt comes back more worried than before, then a tick shows men in black, demon slayer uniforms, casually leaving the estate as they sheath their swords that were recently used.

"Iena!"

The girl flinches and releases an unknown sharp breath. Komi's voice. It's just her voice, only hers. She notices her aunt is out of bed, a gentle hand on her shoulder and a frown on her lips. Her blue eyes are full of worry now.

"Oba..." When Iena speaks her voice trails slowly, like her words are unwilling to take flight. She then frowns herself. If she didn't know Komi left her bed, she must've really been out of it.

Iena closes her eyes, steadies her breathing. She opens them. "I'm fine," she mumbles. Putting more confidence in her words, she nods. "I'm alright."

Komi knows it's the opposite, and she hates making her niece sad. Komi takes her into her arms and hugs her like treasure. Iena returns the hug. "Please do not resent me for this decision."

Iena clutches her aunt's _yukata_.

"The one who has the demon within his possession has the kindest soul I ever felt."

Iena looks at her aunt confused. Her aunt nods with such strong certainty, Iena can't find the will to doubt her. Komi has greater sensing ability than her and could discover someone's character and motives from afar as if she can feel everything underneath her fingertips. Because of this, it's hard for her to question her aunt's judgment.

Yet, she still asks, "Really?"

"It surprised me too," Komi hums sweetly, "but it was so warm, nice, and pleasant, I knew someone so kindhearted wouldn't wish harm unto this place. The demon is docile as well."

"A docile demon," Iena says as she parts from the hug, tone flat and in total disbelief.

"Unfathomable, isn't it?" Her aunt cupped her cheeks and squished them. "We're not in danger. Trust me."

"I do trust you, Komi-oba," Iena immediately replies though with a fraction of a frown.

The burgundy boy who has the box was well-mannered opposed to his freak of a companion. Him being a demon slayer, he must have his agility honed to an insane degree, senses knife sharp to detect anything within a great enough distance. He would not fail to notice her awareness. She isn't entirely sure he hadn't already.

"I will not force you to interact with them if you're that uncomfortable about it. Give the bread and tea to Nana and turn in for the night."

Iena nods slowly. Komi winks. "You're missing out. If I were you, I'd snatch that boy up for marriage."

"Why is everyone talking about marriage?" She hisses, clenching her fists.

Her aunt snickers, but her snickers turn into quivers. Then she devolves into wet coughs.

Right in Iena's face.

"AAAHHHH!"

* * *

Iena stands in front of the _shoji_ where the demon slayers lay, her milk bread and lemongrass tea on a plum blossom lacquered platter.

While she told Nana her aunt's words, Iena insisted in giving the baked goods to the guests. Iena's unsure if she'd chalk it up to curiosity or lurking desperation, but she oddly gained the courage to face them again. She'll come to her own conclusion about them, a casual assessment to confirm what Komi says is true.

She senses them and the silence of the demon. It's weighing on her mind like before.

Iena lowers her head, arranging her face into something she hopes is friendly. Then she lifts her head and pushes the door aside.

"KYAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! P-P-P-PROTECT ME!"

Before she knows it, Iena is knocked to the floor by the crazed blondie from before. Everything, the bread, the tea, the kettle, the platter itself, falls on the floor in a loud clatter. Unfortunately, Iena is on the bottom of all the mess, the blond male on top of her and squirming around as they both groan in utter pain. She has double the pain from the hard floor and his weight destroying her insides.

When he comes to some form of sense, he looks at her, but instead of getting off of her like a decent human being, he holds her tight and with an awful screech, "GODDESS-CHAN! HELP ME!"

"Zenitsu!"

The burgundy boy rushes to the scene, eyes definitely horrified. "Zenitsu, look at what've you done! Please, get off of her!" He grabs blondie on the back of his robe and pulls him away with such force that instantly makes the blonde choke on his screams.

Iena is at a loss for...anything.

When she wants to be proven wrong, she gets railroaded and now she's on the floor with the sweet milk bread next to her. The tea is spilling out the kettle right near her thighs and she might've well have stars wheeling around her eyes. Her head's throbbing, but that'll go away...eventually.

Iena sits up. Now, she fully sees the wreck done by the crash, from the bread to the cups—one of them is broken—to her hot, drenched thighs; it's really taking all the strength for her not to have veins protruding from all parts of her face.

The burgundy boy, Tanjiro, gasps. "I'm really sorry, Fujido-san! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He kneels to her level. "My friends and I will definitely clean this up!"

"Friends!?" yells the third demon slayer, Inosuke, from inside the room. "We ain't friends, and I'm not cleaning up anything! It's all that annoying coward's fault! Make him clean it up!"

"Goddess!" The blond one called Zenitsu screams as he slams both hands on the floor and bows his head repeatedly to the point he forms a red bruise on his forehead. "I'm so sorry, so so sorry! Forgive me, please! Don't kick me out! I'll die! I'll definitely die if I leave this safe, warm house! Or maybe I'll die right here right now with that thing in the room!"

How can someone be this **loud**? It's nigh impossible.

"Zenitsu!" Tanjiro shouts seriously frustrated now

During all the commotion, Iena stands up, a lemony stain on her _yukata. _

And she starts to hum. Tanjiro and Zenitsu stop and watch the girl humming a tune that on the outside is pleasant, but, by Zenitsu, her hums are terrifying. Her humming is sharp and stormy and he's proven right once Iena fists both of their robe collar, Tanjiro with her right, and him with her left, and is thrown across the room like cheap packages. It wasn't a huge toss or anything, but still very surprising.

Realizing what just happened **because this girl threw two demon slayers across the room like nothing**_, _Tanjiro and Zenitsu gape at her as she serenely walks into the room, still humming away at her tune.

"Oh, are you talking about the demon in the box?" Iena asks in a sickly sweet tone. Just mentioning it starts to trigger her.

Tanjiro becomes tense and Zenitsu sucks in his lip.

"H-How do you know...!?" Tanjiro asks startled.

"Doesn't matter! How dare you bring a demon to my home! You have no regards for the life of others!" She balls her fist. "That's how you demon slayers are, inconsiderate and rude buffoons who thinks the world owes you a favor!"

"Buffoons!?" Inosuke, who lies on the bed, jumps to a stand. Iena flinches at the boar head mask again, but she keeps her irritation nonetheless.

"I don't know what the hell that word means, but it sounds like trash talk!" Stinky boar head yells, pointing a finger in her direction. "Monjiro and the coward lost to you, but I won't! Bring it, chunky thighs!"

Iena's face cracks. He just had to point that out. She checks her thigh. It's so wet she can see her entire right thigh poking out the fabric of her _yukata_.

In devastation, she covers that area and her face flushes. That's always been an insecurity, her big thighs. Around the age of thirteen, it was noticeable that she has thick thighs. While Komi tried to comfort her about it and reassured that thick thighs are desirable, the words of neighborhood girls similar in age said otherwise.

"My thighs are bigger than two tree barks combined, I know, I'm well aware of that, I know, I'm well aware of that, I know..." and she drones on, obviously broken by the comment if that pity shadow over her face is a sign.

Zenitsu lets out a sudden sound, turning to the boar head with the most ridiculous glare. "You fool! Don't you know thighs are one of the best parts on a girl! How can you say it as an insult?! Girls have gentle hearts, you heartless pig head!"

"Gentle?! She threw you and Pachiro across the room!" Boar head crosses his arms. "Gentle my ass!"

"Everyone, it's the middle of the night, we're too loud," Tanjiro shushes.

A rattle ends the noise and opens silence.

Iena focuses her whole attention as carefully as she can on the box. The heavy aura emerges once again as it rattles some more. She bites her lip and starts to fidget, wary more than anything. She breathes quickly as the door to the box clicks and slowly becomes ajar.

Zenitsu starts to shake uncontrollably. "IT WASN'T LOCKED!? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! HELP! INOSUKE, COME OVER HERE AND PROTECT ME!"

"Get away from me!"

Iena lowers her eyebrows in anger. If this demon tries anything...

"THAT'S IT! I'M HIDING!"

Finally, the door opens completely and Iena sucks in her breath as she rests a hand on her chest.

A girl pops out, no grotesque being or a horrible manifestation of one. An innocent faced girl.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro beams.

Her pink eyes blink at everyone as she crawls out the box, Iena receiving her full appearance. At first, she's tiny, but she gradually grows as she takes to her feet in a quiet stand. A pink ribbon ties some of her hair to the side while the rest flows down her back in an elegance of lustrous black and sunset orange. Her mouth holds a bamboo stick which strangely makes her more appealing. Underneath her black _haori_ is a neatly patterned pink _kimono_.

The closing and opening of her delicate fingers, the inclination of her head in one direction or another as she beholds the room in polite surprise, the way her smile begins in her eyes as a sincere expression.

Iena is astonished.

She slightly parts her lips and says, "This is..."

"Nezuko," Tanjirou finishes. "Nezuko is my sister."

_Sister? How...?_

She continues to stare. The demon returns the stare looking harmless as ever. While she doesn't sense any ill will from her, Iena is still unwilling to believe. She slowly steps towards her and reaches for her hand. The demon allows the contact. She concentrates on the feel of her hand. Within seconds, flowers surround the demon like pink snowfalls:

Cherry Blossoms_: Kind, Pure, Gentle _

Next, white, bouncy petals twirl into existence.

White Lily of the Valley: _Sweet, Innocence_

Iena blinks owlishly at the demon girl who seems to enjoy her holding her hand; she hears a 'mmghmm' from her in a delighted tone as if it's a greeting, her own untold, 'Hello, nice to meet you, I'm,'

"Nezuko," Iena says, unexpectedly whimsical.

Nezuko, the cute demon girl, hums brightly.

This is the first time she ever encountered a demon that isn't bloodthirsty and may be kinder than humans. Komi's right. She is a docile demon. Docile isn't the right word. Kind fits. She's a kind demon girl. A sense of safeness eases her body.

Iena feels inclined to give introductions as well. "My name is Fujido Iena. It's nice to meet you, Nezuko." She smiles. Iena knows behind the bamboo stick is a smile as well.

Tanjiro watches the exchange with a smile. He was aware that the girl was cautious the moment she neared their room. That may have stemmed from her unwelcoming presence. But, now that she's met Nezuko, things can calm down just a smidge. He's still confused on how the girl knew Nezuko was in the box, but his suspicions aren't bothering him too much.

Iena shifts her attention from Nezuko to Tanjiro which startles him, especially since her stare is full of scrutiny.

Iena walks his way. Komi was right about Nezuko, but what about this boy? She still has maybe/maybe not in her head despite being proven wrong about the demon girl. She doesn't stall. She takes Tanjiro's left hand and holds it, maintaining a blank expression. Flowers grow around him and her eyes widen.

Anemone: _Sincere_

Azalea: _Patient, Humble_

Edelweiss: _Courage_

Hibiscus: _Gentle_

Honeysuckle: _Generous_

Pansy: _Thoughtful, Caring_

"Ok, I've seen enough." She quickly let's go of his hand and the flowers die. If she didn't, it would've left her stunned. It was like a garden, a garden of kindness that can only be cultivated by this boy alone.

There goes her aunt being right again.

"Umm..." Tanjiro mutters, hesitant to speak.

"Tanjiro..." someone calls his name lowly.

Everyone in the room turns to Zenitsu. He has a wide threatening stance and an ominous aura, his head down as if he's glaring at the floor. His shoulders are hunched and his mop like hair covers more than half of his face. He whispers, "Listen...Listen right now..."

Iena can feel wrath gathering in him. She tilts her head, really lost now. What's with the sudden overwhelming anger? She's really clueless about it. Just a minute ago, he was wailing and was about ready to jump into the closet to hide. Now, he looks ready to rip Tanjiro's throat out with his bare hands.

The burgundy boy finds it odd too. "Z-Zenitsu?" He says nervously.

A huge one man riot begins:

"JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! SO YOU'VE BEEN TRAVELING WITH A GIRL THIS CUTE EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. GOING ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY WITH JOY, HUH?! GIVE ME BACK THE BLOOD I SHED FOR YOU! LISTEN TO ME! I DIDN'T GIVE IT MY ALL SO YOU CAN SMOOCH AND BE ALL LOVEY DOVEY WITH A GIRL! I GOT PUMMELED BY THAT WILD BOAR OVER THERE, YOU SAW IT! DON'T TELL ME I GOT BEAT UP JUST SO YOU CAN HAVE FUN!"

"Zenitsu, please calm d—"

"BUT YOU'RE A TWO-TIMER, A BIG TWO-TIMER. YOU HAVE SUCH A CUTE GIRLFRIEND, BUT THEN YOU COME AND FLIRT AND TRY TO SEDUCE GODDESS-CHAN! AND YOU DIDN'T STOP THERE! YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME LOOK BAD IN FRONT OF HER! YOU RUINED MY SECOND CHANCE AT MARRIAGE! HORRIBLE! DESPICABLE!"

"Eh? What're you tal—"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS? DEMON CORPS ISN'T SOMETHING YOU JOIN FOR FUN YOU SELFISH, TWO-TIMING JERK! GUYS LIKE YOU NEED TO BE PURGED IMMEDIATELY. TOO MANY CRIMES YOU'VE COMMITTED AGAINST ME TODAY! YOU NEED TO BE PURGED RIGHT NOW!"

***sound of sword unsheathed***

"PURGE IMMEDIA—AAAAAAMMMHHHH!"

The plum blossom platter lands right in his mouth and sends him barreling into the closet.

"Agatsuma-kun, please do not take out such a dangerous weapon and please clean up the mess outside the door before the floor becomes sticky. I will lend you some cleaning supplies."

"...Yes Goddess-chan."

"Fujido is fine."

* * *

Iena calmly makes her way to Komi's room after her bath. Nana had graciously taken her clothes to wash and hugged her goodnight before continuing her rounds for tonight. In her yellow nightgown, Iena approaches her aunt's and pushes it open.

Maybe it's her comeuppance for throwing the platter at Zenitsu. As soon as she enters Komi's room, a pair of scissors shoots her way and she instantly dodges it, jumping to the right a mere second before the scissors impales the door.

"Your evasion skills improve by the day," Komi says happily.

"It has to. You throw like a bullet," Iena says.

It's not a comeuppance. It's normal in the Fujido household. Since the tender age of 12, her aunt finds it hilarious to randomly throw different items at her when she's inattentive. Many days of cuts and bruises, it took her a year and a half to actually dodge **one **of her throws. She offered an excuse saying it helps her avoid aggressive animals when she hikes the mountain. And it did and it still does.

Doesn't make it any less annoying.

"I have your medicine." Iena walks to the bed and whips out a small bottle, the liquid dark green in color. She hands it to her aunt.

"Thank you."

Iena tilts her head to the side on an incoming arrow like hairpin.

Komi sighs. "Didn't I tell you everything's fine? You went down there and caused a ruckus. I heard all of you from up here."

"What?" Iena protests. "I didn't cause anything! I went to their room to give them bread and tea, and I got tackled...!" Iena dodges another sharp hairclip.

"That's the first problem: you got tackled. If you can elude me, you could've easily prevented that from happening."

Iena huffs. "You're being unfair, Komi-oba."

"Continue," she simply replies.

Iena sighs heavily. "I got pushed down by one of the demon slayers, Zenitsu his name is. He's a rampaging idiot. The tea and the milk bread fell to the floor— " She bends her back from an onslaught of hairpins and brushes.

"The milk bread fell on the floor!?"

That's the only thing you care about, I bet, Iena thinks with squinted eyes. It's flattering how obsessed her aunt is over her milk bread, but in this instance, it's not beneficial. She maybe should or shouldn't tell her about the broken cup either.

Komi groans in lament. She pinches the bridge of her nose. "Go on."

"He wouldn't get off of me so the other one, Tanjiro, had to pull him off me."

"That's the kind boy, isn't it?" Iena twists her lips and looks away. Her aunt grins. "Why must you doubt your aunt?" Komi pinches her left cheek lightly. "What did you see?"

Iena casts her eyes on her ever grinning aunt. Without knowing it, her face softens. "I saw a garden of niceness. From anemones to hibiscus to honeysuckle, it was shocking."

Her aunt, still having a hold on her cheek, rocks it to and fro, "And the *_hanakotoba _for it?"

"Um," Iena removes her aunt's hand from her cheek, "Anemone which means sincere. Azalea is patience and humble. Edelweiss was there too; that means courage. Hibiscus for gentle, honeysuckle for generosity, and pansies for thoughtfulness."

Komi remains silent for some time. Her face is serious and her rosy lips firm.

"Komi-oba?" Iena says uneasy.

The woman leaves her bed without a sound, sidesteps Iena and strides to the door, which funnily still has the scissors embedded into it. She calmly opens it.

"Oba, where are you going? Oba...?"

She turns to Iena with much serenity imbued in her face. "Why, I'm going to arrange a marriage with you and the Tanjiro boy."

"Stop! Don't' do this to me!"

"I want him as an in-law!"

"I'm never going to marry a demon slayer so cut it out and drink your medicine!"

"Never say never!"

"Komi-o...! Don't walk out the do—Komi-oba!"

"Nana, oh Nana~!"

"NNNooooo-uah!"

Iena goes to bed way later than she expects.

* * *

_***Petal Falls ***_

_Petal #1- Zenitsu picked flowers from the entrance of the Fujido Estate when no one was looking. Those are the flowers he gives to Iena for his marriage proposal._

_Petal #2- Iena is clearly insecure about her thighs and becomes a bit happy when Zenitsu defends her._

_Petal #3- Nezuko was a bit sick from the many wisteria trees around the manor but didn't show it not wanting to worry her brother._

_Petal #4- Tanjiro can smell Iena's dislike for them. _

_Petal #5- Inosuke is fascinated by Nana for some unknown reason.  
_

**_*Japanese Terms_**

**_shoji- a Japanese sliding door_**

**_keishi-to- a Japanese herbal medicinal formula designed to improve a person's physical constitution and cure common cold._**

**_yukata- a light cotton kimono or a lounging robe_**

**_kimono- a long, loose robe with wide sleeves and tied with a sash, originally worn as a formal garment in Japan. It's the traditional garment of Japan_**

**_futons- Japanese quilted mattresses rolled on the floor to use as beds_**

**_agari-kamachi- a small step area where guests enter the living space and _****_remove their shoes_**

**_haori- traditional kimono styled jacket_**

**_hanakotoba- language of flowers_**

_**End of Chapter 1**_

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm glad Kimetsu no Yaiba is getting the recognition it deserves.**

**This ****the first time I've ever written in a girl's perspective, so I hope you guys can tell me if it's good or not. ****Leave a review about what you liked or disliked about the chapter. Let me know. I'm writing this for you and me. Meet interactive with interactive.**

**Thanks.**

**-NeverComeTrue**

**P.S- The Petal falls are little tidbits I'll add to certain moments of the story. I guess you can describe them as footnotes to the overall chapter. Just wanted to explain.**

**Ok, NCT's out.**


	2. Chapter 2: To Know A Little Bit More

**Chapter 2, great to finally meet you.**

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge, or 'Alligator-sensei'**

* * *

_**Chapter 2: To Know A Little Bit More**_

* * *

**Beta: ZilverHope**

The next day, Fujido Komi wakes early to meet the first set of demon slayers ever since the ban. It'd be unsavory if the head of the estate did not greet them, and while she's wheezing a bit, her niece's medicine helped soothe her lungs from the condition they were in yesterday.

There's a middle-aged woman down the road who is suffering from similar symptoms so she'll jot in her head to remind Iena to distribute her medicines to the neighborhood.

Komi senses the demon slayers from downstairs. They're a spirited bunch; She smiles and her wonders grow in proportions. Once she reaches the first floor, the floor is full of tantalizing morning smells, and it leads Komi astray from the path to the demon hunters to the kitchen. Nana is making tea for a complete set of a healthy breakfast.

It seems like breakfast is going to be rice porridge alongside numerous other side dishes. Komi scans them in her own affectionate manner, looking at each bowl in pride as if she cooked it herself.

"Good morning, Komi-sama." Nana bows.

Komi returns her bow. "Good morning, Nana. This looks delicious as usual, and I'm assuming these are being served to the guests?"

Nana confirms with a nod and pours the tea into three dainty cups. "I will bring breakfast to their room. Instead of coming to the dining room, they can enjoy their meal with the morning sun and the garden."

"Their room does have a nice view of the garden," Komi responds, one dainty finger on her chin. The garden she and her niece maintain is in full bloom, plants and flowers around like different conquered lands. Iena grows a few of her herbs in the garden, but not a lot since she dislikes unearthing the garden and the environment here isn't suitable for most of the herbs she needs.

Speaking of which...

Komi puts her hands on her hips. "Is Iena still sleeping?"

"Yes, she is, Komi-sama." Nana carries the breakfast to the trays like a seasoned waitress. "I didn't want to wake her. She appeared to be tired after the activities from late last night."

Komi whistles a mindless tune because she most definitely knows the old woman isn't referring to the commotion with the demon hunters, but the goose chase between her and her niece in glorious teasing.

Nana follows up with a smile. "It might be you tease her too much, Komi-sama."

Komi stops her whistling and waves dismissively. "She'll be fine. She's so oblivious when it comes to things like that anyway, so why not exploit it?" Komi poorly justifies, but she's firm in her rationality, so Nana stows her comments away.

Both women depart from the kitchen and head to the demon slayers. They're still awake, not as energetic as before, but still lively enough for Komi to question what the hell is happening in the room.

Her answer is granted by a manor shaking, "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Komi's surprise by the scream develops her coughing fit as she clutches her chest in discomfort. The wheezes vibrate her lungs and now she kind of wishes that she had heeded Iena's warnings of both her coughs and the guests. Nana becomes floundered and almost drops the big tray of food to tend to her. "Komi-sama!"

From inside the room, Zenitsu is sprawled out on the floor in agony, gripping his chest as he wails and flops on the ground.

Several minutes prior, Inosuke was stewing in his annoyance at Tanjiro for all his tactics to trigger the earnest boy failed and resulted in dead ends. He wasn't affected by anything he did and his frustration was snapping away in his blood.

This morning he thought he was the first one to wake up. Snores still filled the room and from that fact came his assumption. During his one-man festive snicker, Tanjiro entered the room, and Inosuke learned that the boy came back from the bathroom after he freshened himself.

He freaking woke up before him. Unacceptable.

Anything Tanjiro can do he can do, but Tanjiro is keen on proving him wrong, and it pulls on so many nerves.

Then a thought came: if he could do a better, stronger headbutt than Tanjiro, the boy will have to admit defeat.

Set in his laughable logic, Inosuke charged at Tanjiro, Tanjiro inadvertently dodged (one of his earrings fell to the floor while he was fixing them), and Inosuke struck Zenitsu instead which led to the current situation.

"Inosuke, why did you do that to him?!" Tanjiro yells, whipping his head to Inosuke.

"Yes! WHY?!" Zenitsu reinforces with a measure of his usual whiny tone.

"I-It wasn't on purpose," Inosuke swears, actually feeling some shreds of guilt. The coward irks him as well, but he had no intention of tackling him and further agitate his injuries. His guilt slowly drains him, until he acknowledges Tanjiro's glare and solidifies why the hell he did it in the first place. "Shut up, Dondoro! It's your fault! If you'd only stayed still...!"

"How's it my fault, and it's Tanjiro!"

Their tumultuous sounds of argument stop when Tanjiro sniffs the air and smells apprehension and worry. It's not coming from either of them, and there's no one in the garden.

"Komi-sama!"

They hear Nana's voice behind the shoji. Tanjiro rushes to the door and slides it open completely. The scene he sees is Nana fretting over a beautiful woman's sickly coughs, her yukata sleeve catching each one of them. Because of her concern, Nana's hands are shaking the fancy tray she holds and if prolonged, she'll drop the breakfast.

Tanjiro promptly takes the tray from Nana so she can devote her full attention to the woman. Nana rests a hand on her back, rubs it in soothing circles. Her coughs soon fade, but Nana proceeds in endless worry. She really cares for her, Tanjiro absently observes, and with the suffix 'sama' that can only mean...

"I'm alright, Nana. Relax," She convinces the old woman and while the woman settles her concerns, her face still has doubt.

They both turn to Tanjiro, and it's then Nana realizes he took the tray away in caution that she might drop the food. Nana bows in gratitude. "Thank you, Kamado-san."

"No worries, Nana-san," Tanjiro replies in kind.

Komi examines him, looks him up and down as if a wise man supporting a theory. In truth, it's not a theory anymore; Komi knew she was right, and Iena confirmed yesterday. This boy is very kind and handsome as well. The scar on his face doesn't detract from his good looks either. She senses benevolence. It's an outline on his skin at first glance. Komi shakes her head.

Her niece is such an imbecile.

Komi rolls her neck. She might as well ask about the noise first. "Explain to me. What was that noise?"

"Tanjiroooooo..." Zenitsu's weeps of man pain floats outside the room.

Over breakfast, the boys recount what happened and the injuries they've received from their last mission. They receive the least expected reaction.

Komi laughs her face red.

Wheezy, inconsistent sounds rolling one after another, a pause, then double the laughter, an unpredictable wind of highs and lows as her laughter is the sole sound in the room. It's weird for them. Komi, who carries a quaint charm about herself, is a polar opposite of what she is, and it shows in her boisterous laugh.

"I never knew someone could laugh this long," Zenitsu mutters as he watches. Can she even replenish her breath after this?

"It's impressive," Tanjiro says, intrigued.

Her laughter finally dies. "That was a much-needed laugh." She ends winded. Komi gives the boys a look over. A rampaging blondie Iena summed him to be. If Komi goes by his screams, it's hard to refute, given he was in pain by the primal one on the right side of him. He's shoveling his breakfast down, his boar mask a rakish touch to the girl face she sees—which she inwardly almost falls into a coma. She's heard about the seven wonders of the world, but she miraculously stumbles upon an eighth wonder. The discovery of the century. A robust body on the bottom and a face fit for a geisha on top.

Freak.

While the redhead is a nice boy, it's not hard to figure out he's a country bumpkin. By norm, country bumpkins are nicer than city people, less obnoxious, but more naïve. But there's something endearing about it, folks milling about, trading goods, eating rice crackers, young boys and girls wearing oversized clothes, verballing one another with love. It's a world of its own. She likes his earrings too. She never played Hanafuda, but she has seen the card deck. His earrings resemble the chrysanthemum symbol.

But, if her very reliable near-perfect deciphering skills are right, he looks like the type to say some absurd shit in certain situations when it's not needed.

They're so odd, the reason why Komi grins for all she's worth.

"After listening to your nonsensical stories, I feel very inclined to introduce myself. I'm Fujido Komi, the head of the Fujido Estate." She bows. "You can call me Komi."

"I'm Kamado Tanjiro," Tanjiro speaks first. "Thank you for allowing us to stay in your home."

Beauty definitely runs in the family, Zenitsu swoons, eyes alight. "Agatsuma Zenitsu, pretty head lady!"

A small chuckle falls from Komi's rosy lips.

Inosuke is next in the assembly line of names, but his name never comes in favor of chomping away at his fish. Zenitsu pins Inosuke with a dirty look. "Say your name, you're being rude!"

"Hah? Can't it wait 'til I'm done?" Inosuke gulps down his rice porridge.

Komi steadily watches him, flexes a small smirk and Tanjirou does not need his nose to know how mischievous it is.

Komi has dealt with people like Inosuke so she doesn't think much of it. Just cocks her head and curls her lips. "It's alright. I understand. He's embarrassed 'cause he's illiterate, right?"

Tanjiro and Zenitsu snap straight **because how can she tell Inosuke can't read or write**. Inosuke halts breakfast time in newfound confusion. "What the hell does that mean? What's elltirate?"

Zenitsu's eye twitches. "It's illiterate."

"Ok, 'illiterate', what the hell does it mean?"

"Poor thing can't read or write, he doesn't know his own name." Komi lays a hand on her cheek in incredible sweet pity. "He's feral, isn't he? I'm sure you boys gave him a name, right? If not, I'll help you! I have great naming sense!"

Of course, Inosuke can't see through Komi's jest, though who would with her sounding so convincing. And within Inosuke's habit, he flares up and slams his hands on the table in absolute idiot mode.

"I know my name, woman! It's the Great Hashibira Inosuke! Inosuke- sama! Inosuke the Great! Don't you forget it!" He points at her, the lady who's about ready to fall into a fit of laughter.

"Aww, man. I was really hoping your name would be Butaro."

If stares could punch, mangle, and destroy, hypothetically, Komi would be a part of the floor by courtesy of Inosuke's fists. But he knows the two next to him will tell him what not to do by whatever standards they hold.

He decides to upset someone else. "That's not my name! That's his name!" Inosuke gestures to Tanjiro with a wave as if shooing the tasteless name to him.

Tanjiro nearly busts a vein. "I just said my name! It's Tanjiro! Ta-n-ji-ro!"

Inosuke shrugs his shoulders.

"How would you feel if someone kept ruining your name?" A pause. A loud slurp of rice porridge. Zenitsu licks the side of his lips. "Butaro."

The bickering starts from there and shows no end in sight. Komi won't haven't it any other way. These boys are doses Iena needs. Bright and alert doses to revive her from her monotonous living.

It's official: they will be friends. Iena will befriend these boys and learn to let go, learn real-life quality over quantity because mouth lessons are moot. She will spend time with them and while their stay is temporary, visiting is a thing—what are trains, horses and feet for? Cars too. That's coming to existence. This will happen and yes, force and fire will be used if Iena resists. Resistance is futile. The bountiful herbs on Hokori Mountain will become her funeral pyres if she resists.

Strapped to her decision, Komi rises to a graceful stand. "I won't interrupt your breakfast any further. It was nice to meet you three, and I hope you continue to enjoy your stay here. Your satisfaction is of the utmost importance. Nana will call the local doctor for a quick diagnosis, and Iena will make an ointment for your wounds." Komi clasps her hands next to a happy expression. "Tanjiro-san, y'know Iena makes medicine from scratch! She also studies the human body! If you ever fall ill—"

"Komi-sama," Nana interjects, aware of where she's going with this.

On the other hand, Tanjiro, painfully dense, smiles and says, "Wow, that's great! I have faith her ointment will heal us!"

Zenitsu has a loving desire to slap Tanjiro's face off.

Komi leaves with Nana at her tail. Once they're gone, Zenitsu turns to Tanjirou with a doomed smile. "I wish you a god-awful death, Tanjiro."

"...!?" Tanjiro isn't afraid, but nonetheless, scoots an inch or two away from Zenitsu.

* * *

Iena throws herself into some chores before Atsuri-san comes to the house. It's near noon and the man said he'll arrive by then. Iena doesn't anticipate it, but she stopped dreading these meetings a while ago because, no matter what, she has to listen and to learn for her prosperous future title.

Komi and Nana informed her about the demon slayers' injuries, too. Apparently, all three of the demon slayers have broken ribs.

Could've fooled her with how rambunctious they were last night.

Komi-oba instructed her to make an ointment for them right after she was done eating breakfast. Such an interruption undoubtedly raised her irritation yet she still complied like the good niece she is. But before she can concoct it, she decides to help Nana hang the demon hunters' clothes on the clothesline. She admits it's for stalling purposes. A business meeting wouldn't miss a non-existent heiress, right?

Iena lets out a big sigh, loud but still somehow lost amongst the wind.

She pulls out the next outfit from the woven basket. Under her fingers is fur patterned by thickness and color. Iena observes the clothing with a very sour frown. One of the demon slayer's clothes is nothing but mismatched animal hide, and while it's surprisingly pieced together nicely, she can't help but shed a tear for the fallen animals.

Just as she's hanging the last item, Iena hears the door to the courtyard slide open violently.

"THERE YOU ARE!" booms a voice from behind her. "THIEF! YOU AND THE OLD HAG!"

She swings around to see Inosuke. He's in the yukata from last night and his boar head mask sits tightly on his head. Oh yes, the loud one. The loud one who insulted her thighs and flung her confidence right in the trash. This demon slayer who kept poking Nana in the head to maybe test out Zenitsu's claim of Nana being a monster.

The one who just called her and Nana thieves—

"Who're you calling thieves?! Control your mouth this instant!" Iena yells.

He marches her way and ferociously closes the distance between them, and to add to it all, for some ridiculous reason, steam is flying out the boar mask's snout as if his anger made him a human kettle.

"I can say whatever I want! Especially to a thief!" Inosuke fires back.

If only he could sense the heat rising in her body and see the burn behind her eyes. However, for Komi, Nana' and sanity's sake, she has to be mindful. They recently reopened. An heiress has to respect their guests and endure the most unpleasant moments.

She struggles to center herself. 'Guests, they are guests' her mind runs over and over. The storm of thoughts is powerful, but she manages the best she can.

She breathes, takes a small nod as if it were a silent pep talk to herself and faces Inosuke. "Hashibira-kun. Nana and I aren't thieves. What did you lose? Maybe I can help you find it?"

"HAH! It'll take more than that to fool me!"

The storm of thoughts is overpowering her mind. "I have no clue what you're talking about."

Inosuke jabs an accusatory finger at the clothesline. "Clearly! You stole my clothes!"

Iena stares at his finger and follows it to where his wild uniform hangs and flutters in the slight breeze.

Now, her mind is wiped out completely. Slowly, she turns back to him. "…Hashibira-kun…Nana took them to clean and I took them to dry. Just like with Kamado-kun and Agatsuma-kun's uniforms."

He freezes, the mask actually revealing his surprise through the embalmed blue eyes. "You stole them...to clean them?" She purses her lips at 'stole' but nods nonetheless. "Oh." After a moment, he turns to the clothesline and inspects it.

Iena scowls. Is he not going to apologize for wrongly accusing her of stealing? Iena's quickly learning that this guy has no manners to speak of.

"Why've you put our uniforms on this thing anyway?" Inosuke asks instead. She decides to focus on his question over simmering in annoyance, but the question raises both of her eyebrows.

Does he not know what a clothesline is? Or the concept of basic hygiene? "I hung them on the clothesline so they'll dry in the sun." Observing his clothes once again, studying the animal hide, Iena asks, "How do you clean your clothes?"

Inosuke shrugs. "I just toss them in a stream then put them out over some rocks."

The wilderness was his former home after all. It's clear that he's not from a privileged background. He may have spent several years or more living in terrains maybe even more hellish than Hokori Mountain.

That really explains why he's uncouth and a dunce.

"It's the same idea, pretty much." Iena leans down to pick up the empty basket. "You should go inside with Kamado-kun and Agatsuma-kun. They're probably having fun without you."

He perks up at that. "Shintaro and Senritsu can't do anything without the Great Inosuke!" He hurries inside the house as if the confrontation never happened.

"Shintaro and Senritsu? He's not good with names at all." Which adds even more to how much he's a dunce.

Walking inside, Iena realizes that Atsuri-san hasn't arrived yet. What a lonesome sign. Atsuri-san being late is a temporary win for her, but seeing that she has another demon hunter related task to get done, after the encounter with the boar guy, maybe she needs one of those meetings to occupy her.

The formula takes her near an hour to concoct, but she does it and heads to their room. Of course, when she arrives:

"We told you if you didn't apologize we wouldn't talk to you!"

"You didn't have to sit that far away from me, you punks!"

"I did feel a little bad."

"Don't feel bad for him, Tanjiro!"

Iena swiftly pushes the door aside. All the boys stop their argument and stare, one with excitement and blushing, one with a cheerful smile and another, while his face is veiled, she can tell he could care less about her presence.

"Goddess-chan! Good morning, Goddess-chan!" Zenitsu squeals.

"Good morning, Fujido-san," Tanjiro greets.

"Uh? What're you doing here? Didn't I just see you?" Inosuke asks which causes Zenitsu to glare at him.

"Don't be rude to her, you senseless pig!"

Iena sighs. For courtesy sake, she bows and replies, "Good morning, demon slayers. I heard that you were all injured after your most recent destination. I made an ointment for your bruises and soon will make medicine to ease the pain from your broken ribs."

"Thank you!" Tanjiro says brightly.

"Goddess-chan is so kind!" Zenitsu coos and swings towards her as giddy as one can be.

Iena, honestly spooked, catches his arms in the nick of time, takes his hands and drops the small circular container of homemade salve in his hands.

"Please apply this on your bruises. You should feel a warm tingling once you use it," She informs abruptly.

However, it seems Zenitsu deflected everything she said by the way his eyes look dazed and a goofy smile stretched on his face. Iena isn't sure what's gotten into this guy, not to mention that she is still annoyed by him and his shenanigans from the first night. However, she sees flowers spread over him.

Columbine: _Anxious Resolve_

Iris: _Fortitude_

Jasmine: _Friendly, Graceful_

Primrose: _Desperate_

Zinnia: _Loyalty_

Iena is puzzled about the flower for desperation, but he doesn't seem that bad of a guy. Anxious resolve isn't someone being a coward, but having an unsure conviction, and there's nothing wrong with that. She shouldn't rely solely on her vision, but their behavior she has seen does correspond with her flower vision.

She still doesn't like them.

Iena doesn't yank away her hands. She firmly closes Zenitsu's hands and smiles faintly. "I hope this helps your bruises, Agatsuma-kun."

He smiles from ear to ear and red blooms in his cheeks. "I know it'll help! It's made by you, Goddess-chan!"

"Please stop that and call me Fujido," is her curt reply.

Inosuke snorts. "I don't need something like that," he mutters as he waves it off.

"You better use it!" Zenitsu shouts.

"Huh!? I said I don't need it!" Inosuke shoots back.

"Hey, stop causing so much trouble!" Tanjiro intervenes.

What follows soon after that is a chase around the room between all three of them, the blonde in pursuit to take off the boar's head, the boar trying to get away from the blonde, and the burgundy boy trying to force them to behave.

Seeing the three of them immersed in their own banters, Iena can't comprehend the lunacy she sees. Don't they have broken ribs? Are boys this crazy?

Zenitsu is finally successful in catching boar head and as he scrambles around, Zenitsu has a deranged smile on his face. "Take off the pig head and use the ointment!"

He removes the head. Iena puts a hand over her mouth.

Pristine skin, smooth dark hair that fades into blue, green eyes underneath fluttering eyelashes—what contradiction is this?

He's too pretty for a boy, a feminine façade that can creepily surpass the beauty of most girls she'd seen in her lifetime. That and the way he habitually carries himself in an excessively loud and stupid manner made him seem frivolous and barbaric. External appearances are very deceiving. Iena looks at Inosuke once more. Yes, there's a fist-size bump on his forehead, but it doesn't detract from his prettiness. It's deceiving and uncomfortable and to think he was trying to scare her into submission earlier.

"Look at the big bump on your head! You need to use it!"

"Get away from me with that!" His voice is clearer now that the boar mask is gone. Such a guttural voice with a soft face.

"Yuck."

Iena thinks it goes unheard, but when all the three boys ceased their noise and look back at her, she realizes that they definitely heard her.

"What, you have a problem with my face?" Inosuke asks as he stomps to her, trying to be intimidating. It's not necessarily working with a face like that.

"Yeah, that's why I said yuck," Iena answers back.

"Whaddyah mean by 'yuck'!"

"Well," Iena raises her pupils, acting if she's building a thought in her head, "while your face is pretty, you have a very muscular and well-kept body. It doesn't match up and because of that it's disturbing and freakish beyond belief and makes me uncomfortable."

Inosuke makes weird, strangled noises of disbelief and anger while in the background Tanjiro and Zenitsu are exceptionally struggling to hold in their laughter.

"I don't wanna hear that from someone who has big thighs!" Inosuke shouts.

Everything becomes still and silence overtakes the room. With how quiet it is, Inosuke lets out a victorious laugh, both of his hands on his hips as his chest puffs out, more so as he watches Iena's head droop and becomes her own dark, cloudy storm.

"Ha! You have nothing to say now! Hahaha!"

One small pause.

"Inosuke, that's hurtful. How can you say something like that?" Tanjiro speaks with a disappointed face.

"Wha…?"

"Idiot, I told you thighs are one of the best parts on a girl. Stop insulting her thighs or I'll purge you," Zenitsu says with the most serious face manageable.

Inosuke whips his head around. "You guys ain't fair! She talked about my face so why can't I talk about her thighs!?"

Out of her short self-pity, Iena lifts her head and takes out another container of the ointment. She has some leftovers and was going to give it to Tanjiro before this commotion sparked out of nowhere. Since she's near the guy, she might as well rub the ointment on him herself.

"Hashibira-kun."

He turns to her with a seething glare. "Wha-!?"

She slaps the ointment on his bump, hard, with no time for him to react. Concluding that her deed is done, she simply walks out of the room and closes the shoji gently, just to make sure his screams don't affect the corridors too much.

"OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!"

In the short amount of time her hand made contact with his forehead, flowers grew around his delicate face one after the other. It spoke.

Edelweiss: _Courage, Power_

Fressia: _Childish, Immature_

Lilac: _Confidence_

Pink Dianthus: _Bold_

Delphinium: _Big-hearted, Fun, Ardent attachment_

Iena shakes her head disgruntled. No matter what her flower vision perceives, their departure can't come quicker.

* * *

"I don't get it, Atsuri-san."

Iena, Komi, and Atsuri sit at the *_chabudai_ in a small decorated room in the west wing of the house.

Around the time she gave the ointment to the demon hunters was when Atsuri showed up. Tsukabe Atsuri, a family friend, Komi-oba's business partner and the one who basically runs the Gobe company behind the scenes, came with his long brown hair normally tied in a tight low ponytail and his mix of a suit and a male kimono, custom made no doubt about it.

A really handsome man and embarrassingly her former adult crush.

Embarrassing fact aside, The Fujido Estate is affiliated with the Gobe Corps, a first entry in manufacturing steel and iron of all kinds. Apparently, from what little knowledge she has, Gobe is part of the reason why they're so affluent. Atsuri said the Fujido clan had helped them become the company they are today, so it's a given they collect some of the profits.

It's too much for Iena to even think about.

Komi and Atsuri turn to Iena across from them. She's utterly lost in everything Atsuri said about the current state of the Gobe company. All the business terms flew over her head, and while he and Komi were talking fluent business, Iena was left to translate and hope that she got some information right.

Atsuri gives a low whistle. "This'll be the fourth time explaining it to you, Iena-chan."

Iena averts her eyes. "I'm sorry."

Atsuri watches Iena through rigid hazel eyes until they smooth out and turn soft. He grins. "We can't have the heiress of the Fujido Estate be a bumbling idiot, now, can we?"

Iena pouts off the insult, as this is a bi-weekly thing and if she hasn't spiked his tea with stool softner by now, then it's okay.

Atsuri takes his spreadsheets and presents it to Iena once more. "Right now, I'm showing you the overseas investment trends of our company's market and also the expansion of pig iron and steel demand not only in Japan but other countries as well..."

Iena's mind washes out immediately and becomes a blank slate. There are too many columns, too many rows. Too many numbers and yen signs to go through and thoroughly to boot. This has to be a puzzle. No way, it can't be.

"…While the expenditure of foreign-manufactured pig iron looks high, the company's overall manufacturing expanded 1.65 times from last year's winter to now, specifically the output increases of steel and pig iron."

"Does that mean everything's fine?" Iena asks reluctantly.

"More or less," Atsuri answers satisfied with her response.

"The expenditure of foreign pig iron wouldn't be so high if Gobe wasn't so inadequate in supply and demand." Komi rolls her eyes.

"It's not that much of a problem, Komi. You're still going to get your profits regardless," Atsuri says with a shrug. However, Komi-oba's sour face is still present. "Listen, cow tits, the lack of iron ore resources in Japan determines our company's iron and steel production. The number of iron ores in existence that are in utilizable condition are inadequate to meet the growing demand at the moment."

"You guys haven't found another site to extract iron from?" Komi asks with a gradual temper in her words.

Komi-oba is getting upset, Iena sees as she watches them battle with business jargon. Iena feels inadequate herself not being able to give input **because what in the world are they arguing about?**

"It's not like we're not looking," Atsuri stresses. "And you don't understand how much shit I had to do to stop the board of directors from the shit they were trying to pull."

"Atsuri-san, your language," Iena reminds him with a pout.

"Sorry, Iena-chan," He apologizes with a sheepish grin.

"What were those shallow inbreds trying to do?" Komi questions, arms crossed.

Atsuri sighs. "During the company's search, they investigated Mt. Yoko."

Komi immediately uncrosses her arms and clenches her teeth. "Are you damn serious?! They didn't find the place, did they?!"

"No, I made sure. I enforced a lot of limitations during the search."

"Mt. Yoko?" Iena finally squeezes in. She thinks she heard Komi mention it before, but she can't tell. It must be an important place if has Komi-oba reacting so angrily.

Komi calms down, especially since she feels coughs trying to overtake her throat. "It's a mountain really close to the sun and sees nothing but the sun." Iena's face fills with wonder. A place where the sun always shines, it sounds virtually impossible.

"Why is it so important?"

Komi absently tucks some hair strands behind her ear. "There's a special place at Mt. Yoko. It's called the 'Hizaken.' That area gets the most sun out of all the other places on the mountain. It creates these raw materials called Scarlet Crimson sand and Scarlet Crimson ore which are used to forge Nichirin Swords for the demon hunters."

"And as you know, we provide the iron and steel to help forge those swords," Atsuri finishes.

It's not just a regular sword, Iena thinks. She knew the Fujido Estate, through Gobe, provided iron and steel to help the swordsmiths forge weapons for the demon hunters, but she had no knowledge that the swords are specialized sun absorbing swords. But it makes sense. Sunlight is what kills demons.

That must be the reason why demon slayers think they're so special. But like soldiers to adversaries, slayers to demons, both die for a cause, and there's nothing special in that.

"But you have to remember, Iena-chan. This is a secret affair. Gobe Corps doesn't and can't know that a portion of the goods goes towards demon hunting. As far as they know, the Fujido clan is a big shareholder and they're required to give money to you. The swordsmiths are random consumers to them. Only me and Yamazaki know about demons. When you become the head, you have to remember so you don't slip up," Atsuri clarifies, hazel eyes deep and firm.

All Iena manages to do is a nod. It's not the right time to dispute her wants. She doesn't want to be heiress, especially in situations like this. Her understanding of business is at infant status. She gets lost in percentages and digits too easily and never knows what's going on during these meetings. They must already know she has no desire to lead this estate alone. In lieu of all this, a nod is the only path right now.

"I'll try my best…"

* * *

Atsuri did not get away with that 'cow tits' comment, particularly since he has a wife.

Komi swats him away—away to get some *_dango_ from the sweet shop two miles from the manor. Atsuri being a treasured friend to the Fujido family decides to go, all in the comfort for a moody lady that he won't admit he's slightly afraid of.

"Iena-chan, what flavor _dango_ do you want?" He asks. Exhaustion takes his face, but he still brings a smile for her to enjoy. His thick eyebrows are curved in joy from abandoning his business talk and regaining his real talk.

"Sweet soy and green tea, please," Iena says.

"Alright. So, sweet soy and green tea for you. For Nana, red bean and for the greedy lunatic, red bean, coconut, *_kibidango_, and sweet soy. I'm off."

Atsuri takes off which leaves Iena to herself. She contemplates on what to do until her aunt cools down. Her decision leads her to the vast garden almost a complete perimeter around the estate.

All her doubts wash away as she slides open the transparent door to the garden, soaking up the sun, the flowers, and the sounds of the pond flowing and eddying. She takes time to appreciate the garden, and Iena smells how sweet it is, maybe even sweeter than _dango_. She hasn't paid much attention to the garden recently and now since Komi-oba is upstairs being a moody mess, Nana is relaxing, and the demon slayers haven't stirred any trouble, she can focus on the garden. Some herbs are cultivated there too, not as valuable as the ones she hikes for due to environment and climate, but a few of them she uses for her *kampo and the rest is saved for brewing tea or cooking.

Iena searches for the watering pot around the pond area. She stays on the hunt for the watering pot until she senses that someone else is entering the garden, human, and predictably a demon slayer.

Iena spots Tanjiro soon after and of course, without a single doubt, her quiet alone time in the garden will be coming to an abrupt end. Tanjiro is looking around, trying to find something. Weirdly, he's not in his demon slayer uniform, but in casual clothing, some ordinary clothes men would wear around the neighborhood. It fits him, seaweed green with clouds patterned to mimic real rolling clouds and a beige hakama pants. It also compliments his hanafuda earrings. Iena huffs silently, what on Earth could he be searching for, and why does he have to do it now?

She hides her stiff smile when he spots her, a natural smile forming on his face. "Hi, Fujido-san!"

He greeted her nicely and he is the tamest one out of the three, so Iena responds, "Good afternoon, Kamado-kun." She stops awkwardly because she has nothing else to say to him and is very much against carrying a conversation at the moment. She doesn't fault Komi for being in a similar mood. "Um, okay then…" She swiftly turns her attention back to finding the pot. It's the best thing to do to avoid any type of interaction with the guy. It was her main focus to begin with, and right now she's more willing to chat with her plants than an annoying demon hunter.

However, Tanjiro shows how incompetent he is in reading the mood.

"Thank you!" He suddenly shouts. His smile is one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens.

Iena rapidly blinks in surprise. "What for?"

"You didn't like us and didn't trust us, but you still allowed us to stay no matter how you felt. So, thank you."

"Well, you're welcome. But it wasn't actually my idea to let you stay, it was my aunt that convinced me."

"Komi san?"

Iena glares at him. Tanjiro flinches. "Komi-san...?" She repeats very disturbingly.

He laughs nervously. Iena is not laughing. "She said it was okay to call her that."

Iena sighs, tilts her head and thinks how much her aunt deserves whatever comes her way for not enforcing proper formalities, especially as a matriarch. As an heiress, Iena begrudgingly surpasses her in that. "I'm telling you. My aunt told me to let you stay."

"I don't truly believe that."

Iena tunnels all her strength to her eyes and narrowed them as much as she can. "What, are you calling me a liar?"

Tanjiro waves away the accusation. "No, no, that's not what I meant at all! I just think it's otherwise."

"Why are you so sure?" She prompts.

He confidently points to his nose. "My nose is very sharp. Yesterday, I smelled you-"

Iena stays very still. "You smelled me? I stink?" She whimpers, actually affected.

Tanjiro realizes his misconstrued statement and reels it back in. "No, No, No!" He says quickly and adds to his words after that. "I sense people but with my nose. I knew you were there behind the door, and what I smelled was annoyance, caution, and curiosity." He ends with one of those smiles that silence the person who sees it.

Iena sticks to her spot and thinks past thoughts of only yesterday. It pains her to say it, but he's right. She didn't like them staying at the estate, and she had her own issues. She could've listened to her aunt and retreat back to her room like planned. Yet, she didn't do it. She was curious, wanted to be proven right or wrong; it has no significance now. She's still perplexed about these people. They're demon slayers, they're part of a faction of people who wronged her family many years ago. That within itself is what pulls many nerves.

Iena bites the inside of her cheek, eyes sinking away underneath her lashes. Demon slayers; pathetic, entitled, users.

"You should go inside and rest, Kamado-kun. Too much movement and you'll injure your ribs further." '_Cause I need to be alone now_.'

Tanjiro's smile goes away. "Fujido-san…why are you upset?"

She's caught a little unprepared by his question. After a couple of seconds, a harsh breath slips out her mouth and she internally kicks herself. He just explained his high sense of smell, so great he can sniff out emotions. His sensing capability is really strong to her detriment.

Stunned, Iena says nothing and lets the spring wind pass by them.

Tanjiro continues, "Are you upset because you can't find what you're looking for?"

Iena is confused. "Huh?"

"I noticed you were looking for something. What're you looking for? I can help you find it," He says, cheerful and excited from the thought of helping out.

"…My watering pot, but—"

Before Iena can continue, Tanjiro starts his search at the nearest patch of plants. Iena narrows her eyes at him but nevertheless joins him. She has to say, him helping her really did make the search faster. They stumble upon it near a canopy of wisteria flowers close to Tanjirou and his group's side of the manor.

He picks it up and hands it to her with his ever-smiling face. "Here, Fujido-san."

She takes it with careful hands. "Thank you, Kamado-kun."

It's awkward again and even if Iena had a script to go about a conversation with him, she'll still have trouble talking. This silence isn't comfortable enough because they're strangers. His gentle nature from what she has foreseen isn't enough to give her peace.

She fails to notice his eyes drift to the wisteria trees above them until he calmly hums. It draws her attention to how aimless it is. His humming isn't going to fill the steep silence. Not that it matters. They'll leave soon, soon to be far removed from her daily life.

"Wisteria trees really are nice to see. They're not commonly found, and they only bloom once a year." His eyes capture the remaining elegant wisteria trees. "So many in one place. It reminds me of the mountain where the Final Selection took place."

Iena glances at him. "Final Selection?"

Tanjiro's gaze lingers on the pinkish-purple trees, each petal glowing in different ways by sunlight. For a split-second, he almost seemed somewhat distant, as if his thoughts are taking him somewhere far away. Sad, yet peaceful.

A telltale transparent petal lets her know her flower vision is emerging. It falls around him much more than the wisteria petals ever can.

Calendula: _Sorrow_

Yellow Pansy: _Remembrance_

Purple Hyacinth: _Apologetic_

Iena twists her mouth. Tanjiro's emotions are sprouting so many petals, Iena feels regret for even asking. It must be a hard thing for him to say. Who is she to expect an answer from him when she barely knows him. She opts to give a bow to conclude their conversation, but Tanjiro speaks, "It's a test you have to do to become a demon slayers."

Turning to her, she finally gets to witness his face. He smiles at her, a slight thing that doesn't quite reach his eyes. The smile is there, but it's entirely sad. She wonders if she should listen on or allow him to continue with such a look on his face, yet he doesn't stop.

"People who want to become demon slayers have to survive a demon-infested forest for seven nights. When I went, twenty people were there. When the test was over, there were only four people including myself."

His answer forms a quick realization: death. Death of sixteen people was neither kind or quick. He must've definitely seen it; Tanjiro had to have seen corpses, chewed body parts with stringed muscles and snapped bones with marrow dripping out. Demons with blood around lips like one would have drinking a bottle of milk. He had to fight off demons and eat off the land, or decipher what to eat unknowledgeable of what fruits and plants had to offer, good or bad. Not him alone, but Zenitsu and Inosuke, the rest of the demon slayers alive or not.

Everyone has their reasons behind certain actions, but could their reason, their motive and hopes drive them to such an extent? Who could have a reason so strong?

Iena frowns and feels the weight of those thoughts dragging her down. Tanjiro and the wisterias are straying and in moments she's in front of the estate's gate, fumbling up the stairs, eyes in and out, from clear to dull at the pace of a frantic heartbeat.

Someone is right behind her, the click-clacks of hurried sandals only slower than hers. Iena doesn't turn to see who it is.

She finally stops—they finally stop. There's a river of blood falling from the upper step inside the manor.

"**_Don't look_**!"

Afterwards, the sight is no longer visible. Her mind comes back to the surface and meets reality again. Maybe this isn't good to do since those thoughts may reappear, but nonetheless, she shuts her eyes in comfort that she's back, sad but safe.

"You don't have to worry about me, Fujido-san," Tanjiro says, sensing her mood. "I feel sadness, I feel sorrow, I feel anger and it hurts when I see people in pain. But, for what I do, if I linger on those emotions, I can get others and myself killed. I let myself feel these emotions, but I'm slowly learning how to move on from them because I know what has to be done, but I mourn everyone who died those seven days and wish there could be a different way to become a demon slayer."

Iena looks vaguely surprised. "I wasn't worried about you."

Her comment knocks Tanjiro's smile down a couple of notches. He twitches like a dummy. "Oh…"

While Iena was more worried about her thoughts, what Tanjiro said did stir her. His words did have truth. At times, there are things that you need to get past and certain situations will force you to do so. It doesn't matter if you're ready or not, the day will inevitably come.

She's experiencing it now, and she guesses Tanjiro is experiencing it in his own troubled way.

What he said loosened something in her chest, just a little bit. It feels weirdly like remorse.

"I'm sorry." Iena faces him, a bit embarrassed across the face.

"Huh?" Tanjiro reacts.

"I'm sorry for throwing you and Agatsuma-kun across the room yesterday. I shouldn't have done what I did."

He's a little startled by the sudden apology, but he graciously accepts it. "It's ok. I should say sorry for causing you trouble yesterday and today. And Zenitsu needs to apologize as well!" Tanjiro states in a righteous manner

Once those words leave his mouth, Iena senses human movement beyond the _shoji_ of their room a couple feet down. She turns to look and sees the aforementioned blondie staring at her and Tanjiro—he looks a bit off, she can't put her finger on it. He's just anchored to his spot, eyes set on the both of them.

Unbelievably, Tanjiro doesn't notice how creepy the guy's acting and smiles thinking that's the perfect remedy for the situation.

"Zenitsu, you're awake." Tanjiro begins to walk towards him.

"Take another step, and I'll purge you, bastard."

Tanjiro freezes and so does Iena. For some reason, the spring wind feels colder than before.

Zenitsu balls his fist. There's supposed to be a limit of how much one can clench their fist, but Zenitsu is proving the world wrong with the amount of force he pushes into one clench.

"You sneaky forehead bastard..." His preamble begins slow and steady.

Then the sparks fly:

"HOW DARE YOU! BECAUSE I WAS ASLEEP YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD STEAL A CHANCE WITH GODDESS-CHAN!? LOOK AT THIS SETTING! LOOK AT HER CLOTHES! LOOK AT YOUR CLOTHES! THIS IS DEFINITELY A DATE! WAIT—

WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE CLOTHES?! DID THAT PRETTY, SCARY LADY GIVE THEM TO YOU OR WAS IT THE OLD, MONSTER LADY?"

There he goes again calling Nana a monster. Iena narrows her eyes. "I kind of don't want to apologize to him."

"Zenitsu, calm down. You and Inosuke have clothes too, not just me."

"Uh?" Zenitsu pauses. "…Well, who said you could go see Goddess-chan in those clothes. You should've stayed in the room, stalker."

"Eh?" Tanjiro has never been so confused.

Iena steps forward. "Agatsuma- kun. I was speaking to Kamado-kun because I wanted to apologize to him and you for yesterday." She bows. "I'm sorry for throwing you across the room."

This is something entirely new, no, mortifying to be honest. Never once she ever thought she'd be doing such an absurd action towards them. Apologizing to demon slayers, this shouldn't be happening.

However, it feels like the right thing to do.

Iena waits for his response, but it doesn't come. Nothing. Zenitsu says not one word. Slightly perturbed, she stops bowing and comes face to face with an absolutely stunned Zenitsu. His cheeks are red and he fidgets as if someone struck him the most embarrassing news. Before she knows it, Zenitsu is prancing to her like some mythical creature granting unwanted wishes. Her surprise has her take a step back from the outrageously fast boy. Too fast for her liking.

"Goddess-chan~! It's alright! I definitely deserved it anyway! I'm sorry for crashing into you! It'll never happen again!" Zenitsu shouts, still somehow bashful.

All she can say to that is, "Ok." What else more is there to say?

Tanjiro, seeing the kind of heartwarming scene, smiles. Iena isn't opposed to Zenitsu too much. It fills the boy with happiness.

However, once Tanjiro even has the thought to head over to the two of them, Zenitsu spins his head and hawk-eyes him.

"Don't think I forgot about you, stalker. All stalkers must be purged!"

"W-What!?"

It doesn't take him longer than a second to fetch his yellow sword from the room and target Tanjiro in his passionate jealousy of what never happened.

"AAH-Zenitsu! Stop!"

"Absolute purging for creepy forehead bastards like you!"

At a subsequent time, garden hour becomes a goose chase between the two of them, one pleading to stop, and the other yelling for execution. Iena doesn't stop the blonde this time. The entertainment is too much for her to kill. Three minutes in, Inosuke leaps out of the room for no reason whatsoever and joins the fray with a random solid kick to Tanjiro's back, the chase then resumes with the three of them reenacting their previous chase earlier on.

Iena watches them and takes a big sigh. They're really odd and seem like a handful. Their departure can't come any sooner, she thinks, sitting on the most convenient *_engawa_ perched right around their room

Still, this is some unique entertainment, and she doesn't mind seeing more of it.

* * *

_***Petal Falls***_

_Petal #6- Komi doesn't know how to cook. Nana gives her lessons twice a week. She's slowly coming along._

_Petal #7- Zenitsu is the one who told Tanjiro to take off his earrings once in a while to prevent ear infection._

_Petal #8- Komi came up with the name 'Butaro' because buta 豚 means pig in Japanese. The Great Inosuke is incredibly insulted._

_Petal #9- During the business meeting between Komi, Iena, and Atsuri, Nana took the boys' measurements and got them clothes unbeknownst to them. They thought she was doing it by doctor's order._

_Petal #10- Iena thinks Tanjiro having a sharp nose is pretty cool, however she'll be careful around him from now on._

_***Japanese Terms**_

_**chabudai - a short-legged table used in traditional Japanese homes.**_

_**dango - sweet dumplings made from rice flour.**_

_**kibidango - dumpling made from millet flour**_

_**kampo - a Japanese variant of Chinese traditional medicine that involves the extensive use of herbs. It's a medical system organized based on the reactions of the human body to therapeutic interventions.**_

_**engawa - a boarded floor running along the outside of a traditional Japanese home. It's often used as a type of veranda.**_

**End of Chapter 2**

* * *

**A/N: I don't know why it took me so long for this chapter. It just did. But I wouldn't have been able to post this chapter without my beta: ZilverHope! He definitely did give me hope for this chapter. Without him, I'd still be sitting on my ass with this and doing nothing. He's great and if anyone needs a story to be checked from top to bottom, ZilverHope is the one. Check out his stories as well.**

**I thank all readers for their support through reviews, favs, and follows, especially since it's been a month from the first chapter. Time is a monster, isn't it?**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to know what you thought about it. Meet interactive with interactive.**

**\- NCT**


	3. Chapter 3: A Frog In A Well

**Chapter 3, you're finally free.**

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge, or 'Alligator-sensei'**

* * *

_**Chapter 3: A Frog In A Well**_

* * *

**Beta: ZilverHope**

_Dear Little Flower,_

_I hope you are well. I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit the estate recently. I believe my subordinates are catching on to my "business meetings" I have when my patience runs thin with them._

_As of the time of writing this letter, I am involved in the careful improvement of a school located in Fukuoka. The school eagerly seeks government recognition, for, without it, it will be unable to grow into a first-rate institution. I've decided to sponsor them in acquiring equipment, books, and teachers to educate the students. I won't go too deep in explaining. I don't want this letter to turn into a scroll._

_It's an arduous process, more so because of the Westerners who are completely clueless in every which way. But, they have knowledge, and while I don't believe our land offers any less, what they bestow will satisfy a curious mind. As told by words from many times gone, if you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub._

_These books are ahead of you, but I know you're smart enough to handle them. You're a wise girl, not in business, perhaps, but you're still growing, and I want these books to grow with you as well._

_I will stop by sooner or later, no doubts given. I don't want you to be lonely without your old, wrinkled friend here. Maybe once I stop by, you can make your milk bread and tell me everything that I've missed._

_Best regards,_

"Kamekichi Yamazaki," Iena reads the last of the letter. "Wait—"

_Did you think I'd forget? Driving lessons will start as soon as this project is out the way._

Iena sweats. She'll never know why Yamazaki is so persistent in teaching her how to drive. The only time she's ever seen a car was when Atsuri took her, Komi and Nana to Ginza, Tokyo to see a performance from an all-female theatre group. And thanks to his car, they were able to see the strange spoils Westerners had to offer to their humble country from cute bistros to embellished shops.

But, driving that monstrosity with the engine roaring to life and that smoke blasting from the pipe like a cannon, how could anyone control that, let alone her?

"I hope that project takes a lifetime," Iena gripes to herself. She sets the letter down on her dresser then turns her attention to the books sitting on the bed near her.

Within a normal glance, the books do look difficult to comprehend. All of them are thick, papers together in one whole wisdom, and when she picks one up, it's heavy as she thought it'd be. The leather feels soft and delicate as she runs her fingers over the dark blue bindings. She fingers the white katakana carefully.

"The Fure…kusuna?" She squints her eyes for accuracy. "Furekusuna…repoto…? By Aburahamu Furekusuna."

_"The Flexner Report by Abraham Flexner"_

Weird name and title. But, Iena figures it to be a Western name since it is a Western book translated into Japanese. With raised eyebrows, she opens the cover. Paper rustles as she thumbs through the book for a small exploration. Words appear and disappear as her eyes flit across the pages. Jumbled sentences of the unknown are all she sees, and Iena gulps because of it. Yamazaki has faith enough to fill a well all for her, and here she is contemplating if she should dare face one inexplicable page.

Yamazaki got these books for her to learn more medicinal practices.

Iena fiddles the corners of the pages. She has half a mind to re-wrap the books and send them back to the old man. Venturing outside of _kampo_ was never a thought in her mind, and she still wants it to remain a non-existent thought.

But Yamazaki, she'll be letting him down. It's a universal fact she's hopeless with business, and she doesn't want him to believe she's just as clueless when it comes to expanding her medicine prowess.

One fragile finger flicks the book to the beginning.

Minutes pour into hours, just like how she pours herself into the pages. She scours the book, reading until she's almost cross-eyed and living each page in breathless rapture.

Not all is entirely pleasant since she did encounter bumps with some subject matters, but she's too immersed to dwell on the shortcomings.

Further in the book, one topic strikes her curiosity anew.

_"Fractural Injuries"_

"Fractural Injuries…fractured ribs," Iena mutters, her eyes still on the book. The picture on the facing page is of a human skeleton, the outlines of the whole human body transparent, skin merely a shadow. She has yet to dive into detail with the books about the human body she has resting on her bookcase.

She smiles a little more as she reads on.

After she hits the category of specific fractural injuries, ribs finally arise in mid-page. Iena's face moves a little too slowly by the beginning paragraph beyond.

By the start of the fourth paragraph, Iena grins.

A pretty, pretty grin, but not a very nice one.

"_For simple, isolated rib fractures, conservative therapy is usually adequate which includes appropriate analgesia, deep breathing, rest, and ice."_

"Analgesia, another word for pain reliever." That's a word she came across before from her other books. Such easy and fair solutions, and she already thought of half. She did promise the boys medicine to soothe the pain from their ribs. That's one mark off the treatment list.

Iena's grin grows, corners of her mouth hiked high in her cheeks.

If she uses these methods on the boys and enforces limited activities, they'll regain their strength quicker. When that happens, she'll be waving goodbyes at the beginning of next week, perhaps earlier. With these remedies, early departure awaits, and them leaving meant wondrous peace. She'll be free from, 'Fujido-san, help! I'll help you! Me! I'll help!' and 'Goddess-chan~! My sweet Goddess-chan~!' and, "I'm the best, the greatest of all! PIG ASSAULT!'

Armed with this simple understanding, she calms down her grin. She shouldn't hold a fanfare for herself, not just yet. Once the deed is done and she sees them become nothing but small dots from a distance, then she could have her one-man festive.

In her elation, she gathers all the books and glides to the bookcase adjacent to her bed. Thanks to Yamazaki, she now has more books to add to her collage of knowledge. For a moment, Iena stares at the shelves of books before her, spines lined up evenly. It was only three years ago this bookcase was new and bare and willing to withstand the weight of many books. For ages afterward, it's full and has more of her than she ever realized. Now, she has three new books to add to her compendium of medical books.

Iena vows to herself to make the medicine first thing in the morning, and add more ingredients to accelerate the effects.

"Thank you so much, Yamazaki-saAAHH!" Iena ducks quickly on incoming scissors that exert so much force, the wall rocks and the hair atop her head scatter from the loud whoosh. Her mouth gapes open like a dead fish, and once she composes herself, she looks up to see the scissors above her embedded deep into her decorative wall, the handle almost touching the face of it.

The *_shoji_ is slightly ajar. Iena finally becomes attuned to her senses and feels someone creeping outside her door, but she knows who it is. By those scissors, she definitely knows.

"…**BED**..." She hears a deadly growl.

Iena immediately obeys. "O-O-Ok, s-sorry, Komi-oba."

* * *

Iena does as planned as soon as the sun rises. She collects all her ingredients, all the herbs, powders and mixtures, rushes into a solitary room to concoct the medicine and gets to work. In the sum of four hours, she runs to the far east side of the estate into the small icehouse for a bucket of ice. Icehouses aren't too common in Kawagoe. Those who own icehouses are mainly ice cream shops and candy shops that sell a variety of sweet treats like *_kakigori._ This icehouse was built a while ago in the time before the ban, and two years ago, Komi was able to find someone to get it up and running again. There's a maintenance guy who comes occasionally and checks on it. Iena tends to bake him some milk bread and serve him some cold lemon tea for his troubles.

She strolls into the kitchen after a smell too enticing wanders her way. Expectantly, she runs into Nana, busy hands over multiple bowls arranged like antique sets behind a crystal display. By the smells, she can identify each food cooked: egg, fish and maybe miso soup. Her assumptions ring true as she peeks at the bowls: *_tamago-kake gohan,_ *_tamagoyaki,_ grilled fish, miso soup, and hot steaming green tea. The side dishes consist of burdock root, pickled radish combined with a salad made from spinach and tomatoes. All bowls in neat order on an oceanic patterned porcelain tray.

A rather healthy breakfast.

"Good morning, Nana. That's a lot of eggs," Iena notes.

"Good morning, Iena," Nana returns. "The doctor had told me egg is a good food source for people to regain health. For what those boys do, they must be fed lots of it."

Iena soaks in that small tidbit and leaves it as a footnote to comb through her books and see if there are facts similar to this one.

Maybe she should've talked to that doctor and acquired information like this pertaining to the benefits of specific foods.

But, this is good. This breakfast will be one step to a fast, full recovery. One step for her to kick their behinds out of the estate.

Iena clutches the bottle of medicine in obvious glee, just imagining the peace she'll get once they hit the road. She's aware, now they're reopened and those crows snitched to all the demon hunters around the land of the rising sun, more will bound to show up at their gates, but at least she'll have time to get used to the redundancy.

Also, she severely doubts she'd meet people who'd outrank those guys' lunacy.

"You're lively this morning, Iena." Nana watches her with muffled laughter.

"Because your breakfast looks amazing," Iena quickly replies. Her reply is more abrupt than intended. Nevertheless, she shines a smile. Nana resigns to a giggle and a shake of her head.

Her smile turns upside down as soon as her senses tap against her skull. She becomes too reluctant to turn around until she quickly cocks her head to dodge a knife-sharp hairpin a speed of a runaway fly escaping a determined spider. It cuts through the air and sinks into the wall ahead.

"Good morning Komi-sama," Nana greets.

"Good morning, Nana. Good morning Iena," She replies as if she didn't spear chuck a questionably, pointy hair barrette seconds ago. Iena sighs and goes with whatever flow her aunt is riding on.

"Good morning, Komi-oba," Iena manages to say, making sure to carve out the dread from her greeting.

"Pray tell, why was my young and clueless niece up in the late hours of the night?"

Iena bit the inside of her cheek, head and eyes tentatively rolling away from Komi's pissed off scowl. Big mistake on her part. Komi grips her head, and like a screw, turns her to absorb all the annoyance in one stare.

Iena knows Komi dislikes when she doesn't go to bed on time, and she really tries to abide by the curfew: 10:00 p.m., 10:30 if Komi-oba is in a playful mood.

She really does try because she has no desire to be maimed.

"What did I say about going to your bed late? There's a reason why they call it beauty sleep, Iena," Komi scolds. Iena's body sinks under her reprimands. "Keep doing what you're doing. You won't look as beautiful as Nana and me anymore. You won't be the neighborhood beauty anymore! I won't be able to scare off little girls anymore!"

"What…?" Iena straightens herself.

Komi sighs. "Go to your bed on time. I'm not going to tell you this again." She releases Iena's head and instead, goes in for a pat.

"Yes, Komi-oba." Iena fixes the top of her hair, a little disheveled from Komi's grip. "I'm sorry. I didn't pay attention to the time. I was enjoying one of the books Yamazaki-san gave me."

"Oh, you opened your package." Komi seems to understand now. She raises a brow. "He gave you books?"

Iena nods. "Yes. Three medical books. He's helping with the establishment of a new school in Fukuoka, and he was able to save me some of the books they'll be using once the school year starts."

"Oh, that's sweet of him. I'll question him on the whereabouts of Nana and my gifts when he has some free time."

Those words are a little too sinister, Iena thinks.

With the foreboded, disguised threat aside, Komi puts her hands on her hips. "Along those lines, as your punishment, you'll have no free time."

"Eh?" Iena hesitates.

Komi delivers her discipline with one pointed finger in her face. "Punishment for disobeying bedtime rule." Iena freezes.

"You'll spend all of your time with the boys today."

Iena's mood is shot to a bloody pulp. She chokes and sputters on breakfast smells and Nana's soft, but excessive hums.

Isn't this what she kind of wanted? To restore their health and have them out the door? But to spend the whole day with them? They haven't been too bad for the couple days they've been here, but still, that's madness.

Iena opens her mouth in clear protest, but Komi stuffs Iena's soon-to-be sentence back in her mouth with a loud call of Nana's name. "Nana!"

"I'm right here, Komi-sama."

"Iena will give the boys their breakfast."

Nana gives a sidelong glance at Iena's mortified face so helplessly. "Alright, Komi-sama." Nana carefully takes the medicine bottle from her hands and replaces it with the tray. Iena is still in a terrible stupor.

"Iena-_sama_." Iena snaps out of it. She finally sees Nana, supporting the tray that is in Iena's now slacked hands. "You can't drop the demon slayers' breakfast now."

"Yes," Iena whines.

They walk the hallways to the demon slayers' room. Iena is still dumbfounded by Komi's punishment and contemplates whether Komi is pulling a funny or if she's dead serious. She's joking, Iena constantly states in her mind. She's joking, there's still some mirth in those maniacal blue eyes of hers. Komi-oba can't be serious.

"Oba! They're boys! You're gonna make me stay in a room with only boys," Iena reasons, reaching for some type of hope.

"You've seen for yourself. They're not those type of boys. Tanjiro-kun and Butaro-kun won't do anything to you."

She definitely left out Zenitsu. And Butaro? Must be Komi's horrendous nickname for Inosuke.

The minute they approach the room and slide the *_shoji_ open, Komi shoves her into the room.

"Good morning, Tanjiro-kun, Zenitsu-kun, Butaro-kun!" Komi peeks her head into the room.

"What did you—" Inosuke starts, but Komi purposely cuts him off.

"It's time to eat your breakfast! You all brushed your teeth and washed your face, I presume!" She flashes all three of them a smile, in which Tanjiro and Zenitsu blush at.

"Yes!" Tanjiro and Zenitsu answer earnestly.

Zenitsu plucks Inosuke's ear, and between grinding teeth, he complies. "Yes"

"Wonderful! Iena here," She gestures to her niece with the tip of her head, "will serve you breakfast and will be with you for the rest of the day!" Komi bows her head in place of her body.

"Komi-oba! The medicine and the bucket. I have to—" Iena gives up on her sentence at the sight of Nana carrying the medicine and the bucket seamlessly.

The medicine bottle was left in the kitchen and the ice bucket was back in the room she was previously in while making the medicine. That's a good amount of hallways to traverse through.

Nana really is fast. Zenitsu wasn't lying about that.

The old woman enters the room and sets the items down on the _*tatami_. She then grabs the medicine bottle and sticks it in the bucket of ice. Nana glides out the room.

"I leave her in your care!" Komi swiftly slams the _shoji_ shut and her dear parting words echo, "All day!"

Iena has still yet to gather her bearings.

She wasn't kidding. She wasn't kidding at all. In hindsight, Iena should've never questioned if Komi was serious or not. Her aunt never lies when she says she'll do something.

It doesn't take long for her to realize the amount of staring all three of them are doing. At that awkward turn of events, only prolonged silence prevails. She squirms where she stands, uncomfortable under their intense scrutiny.

Someone finally decides that this has been going on for too long. "Good morning Fujido-san." Tanjiro breaks into a smile, as if they weren't doing an intense staring contest mere seconds ago.

Zenitsu adds to the cheerful greeting. "Goddess—CHAN~!" He rubs his hands together with a lovey-dovey smile. "I knew you'd be the one giving us breakfast!

"Why are you standing there? Hurry up and serve the food," Inosuke demands with a wave of his hand.

Iena sighs in defeat. "Here's breakfast."

Seeing the large tray in her hands, Tanjiro rises to his feet eagerly. "Here, let me help!"

_There he goes, not even a minute!_ Iena moves the tray away from him. "Kamado-kun, you need to rest. Too much strenuous work will only further aggravate your injuries."

"But, you might drop the food. That's why I thought—"

Iena sharply sets the tray down onto the *_chabudai_ and pins him down with a flat stare, flatter than squished roadkill.

"Right…okay…" He visibly wilts.

All the guys gather around the table while Iena shares their portions. Inouske drools over the food. By the way he looked enchanted by the food, it's not unexpected of him to start wolfing down the food like months had passed before he ate a decent meal.

Zenitsu sends the boar a glare, fists clenched. "Oi, what's wrong with you?! How many times do we have to tell you to say '*_Itadakimasu_', before you eat?!" He shakes a nagging fist.

"Takes too long to say." Inosuke gulps down most of his fish.

"It's only one word!"

Iena is on the verge of using the table to slam her face off. "_I-Itadakimasu_."

While the boys bicker, Iena quietly lays out her breakfast piece by piece, from main dishes to side dishes until the tray is bare and reveals the painted sheen of a porcelain ocean.

She leaves herself enough room to not invade the others' space and kneels in her spot. She properly adjusts herself, still wordless between all their quarrel. The bicker between the boys dies at the dawning comprehension of Iena, parallel to Zenitsu, picking up her chopsticks to eat her _tamago-kake gohan_.

"Fujido-san," Tanjiro calls, eyebrows hiked high. "Are you eating with us?"

"My aunt said to stay here," She reminds them between small chews of _tamago-kake gohan_ as she resolutely keeps her eyes on her breakfast.

However, Tanjiro's sudden scream shatters her concentration on her breakfast. She whips her head and gasps half her breath away in view of a love-struck Zenitsu's deep gaze, batting his eyelashes for all he's worth.

Tanjiro was there a second ago.

"The day is already starting off perfect," Zenitsu proclaims.

Iena looks around the room and finds Tanjirou splat in the corner, dazed as if he got sucker-punched. That was what Zenitsu probably did to him. To the right of her, Inosuke lets loose a boisterous, mocking laugh at Tanjiro's undeserved pain.

Ten minutes pass filled with Zenitsu's continued romantic overtures, Tanjiro's mindless babble about his sword and how the color reminds him of coal, and Inosuke's loud, sloppy eating. Iena lost count of all the tired, beat up sighs she released.

After breakfast, relief feels like soap bubbles to Iena, and with a cheery smile, she takes up all the bowls and plonks them on the tray. An opportunity for reprieve through tidying the dishes, she can at least hang on to that.

She stands, snatches the tray and books for the door, but skids to a stop as Nana opens the door. The old woman kindly takes the tray from Iena's hands and bows. "Thank you, Iena. I'll take care of the dishes. I'll also give you three small cups for you to put the medicine in."

In those wrinkled brown eyes, the message reads, '_Komi sent me_.'

"Oba…" Iena complains, but her voice gets shut inside the room by the gentle clack of the _shoji_.

The next step: Conservative therapy.

The Flexner Report listed one of the ways to heal rib fractures is a pain reliever which she has in a gorgeous glass bottle.

Iena instructs the guys to line up horizontally in front of her and kneel. She fetches the medicine bottle from the ice bucket, the transparent cold glass a tingle in her hand. She walks back to her spot and presents the bottle to them. The medicine inside is a strange blend of green purplish liquid thicker compared to any regular liquid the guys have ever seen. Inosuke, Zenitsu and even Tanjiro cringe.

"I made the medicine for your injuries as I promised." Iena descends into a proper kneel, befitting for an heiress. She instantly notices their mixed expressions. Her lips twist, caught halfway between a grimace and a frown. "It's not bad at all. It'll help ease the pain from your rib injuries."

Courage swells in her. "You guys want to get better, right?"

Three nods.

"You guys don't want to stay here and do nothing all day, right?"

Two nods.

"You guys want to leave, right?!"

"Yeah!" Inosuke shouts, fist clenched excitedly.

"If so, you have to drink the medicine," Iena reveals the three small cups Nana gave her, all the height of a normal thumb. She pours an efficient amount in each cup, a measurement close to half a cup.

Everything accounted for, she hands one cup to Inosuke. "Here, Hashibira-kun."

"No."

"…What?"

"No, I don't want it."

Iena narrows her eyes. "If you want to leave, then you have to take it."

"I don't need it." He crosses his arms and turns his head away similar to a bratty child who won't eat his vegetables. "I'm getting better without all the nasty stuff you're giving me."

Four hours. Those two words run multiple laps in her mind as she stares at the boar who couldn't care less. "…Hashibira-kun. When you were talking, I think I saw a little bit of spinach stuck in your teeth."

"Hmm, what?" He falters. Inosuke uncrosses his arms.

"Open your mouth so I can get a better look."

Inosuke, you dumbass, Zenitsu thinks, shaking his head. Tanjiro watches, positively with a similar sentiment, but definitely not as vulgar as Zenitsu's.

Inosuke opens his mouth wide. "You see it?"

"Yes." Without warning, Iena dumps all the medicine inside his mouth, and a result is a coughing and hacking boar, flopping around like a fish out of water.

"Blargh! Wh ***cough*** the hell?! I'm gonna ***cough*** kill you!"

"Next, Kamado-kun." She gives him his cup. Tanjiro's mouth wobbles a little, eyebrows knit together in clear unease. He finally puts the cup to his mouth and chugs it down.

He blinks. "It's not bad." Tanjiro's smile appears like a sun through a crowd of clouds. "Inosuke, Zenitsu, it's not—"

The aftertaste kicks in.

Immediately, Tanjiro gags like an old man choking on candy. It smelled good and tasted good when he drank it. How did this yummy, sweet flavor instantly change into a taste so bitter and horrible? His tongue must have morphed some way somehow because this is nigh impossible.

Once the traitorous aftertaste finishes ruining Tanjiro's taste buds, he kneels over and falls to the floor face first.

Iena innocently tilts her head with a pouty frown "I must've put too much…I thought the honey would've balanced it out."

Zenitsu pales considerably at his fallen comrades. He has no time to surreptitiously inch away from Iena; the girl already has a cup in his face.

The blonde yelps. "Goddess-chan, please! Don't make me drink that! I don't want to end up like those two!"

"Agatsuma-kun, don't your ribs hurt? This will heal the pain."

"If the pain keeps me here longer, then I'll live with it! You saw me, right?! I didn't nod when you asked about leaving! Those two insane idiots did, but not me!" He begins to cry hysterically, holding his face in utter fear. "This is the best place I've ever been to throughout my whole miserable life! It's nice and big and beautiful and there are two beauties taking care of me! This is my type of heaven! I'll get used to the old monster lady eventually—"

Iena glares at him.

"—I promise! So please! I'm on my knees!"

"We're both kneeling."

He slams his face to the floor. "You can't deny a man on his face!"

Her wisteria eyes watch him marked with unwarranted sympathy. Was her medicine so bad that it has a guy plead on his face to avoid drinking it? This really doesn't help her pride.

She peers at Tanjiro and Inosuke still on the floor gurgling from their respective places. She closes her eyes. It's only fair for him to drink it too. He can't leave his friends behind.

In that weird thought process, Iena palms Zenitsu's hair, and the blonde shoots from the floor to behold her face. "It's ok, Agatsuma-kun," She tells him.

Zenitsu's eyes water in good grace. "Goddess-chan!" He breathes. Her hand is still in his hair, and Zenitsu is ready to fall in a deep dreamy coma.

Iena plugs the cup in his mouth, calmly pulls his hair back and lifts the cup as if feeding a baby a bottle of milk. Zenitsu squawks, but the sound can only come out as mangled gulps. When the cup is empty, she plucks the cup out of his mouth, removes her hand from his hair and Zenitsu drops unceremoniously on his back.

Second step: ice

* * *

Inosuke closely examines the bucket of ice. He swears they're chunks of clear glass, but the ice sweats water. Glass doesn't sweat! He moves in to touch, but Iena swats his hand away, to the boar's annoyance.

"What's that?" Inosuke asks, still annoyed she hindered his attempt to touch the ice.

"Is that ice?" Tanjiro follows behind with a question of his own.

Iena looks at them, nonplussed by their questions. "Yes, it is," Iena answers while she unfolds a couple of rags to gather the ice in. Why do they sound surprised by a bucket of ice? She knows ice is few and far in between, but they should at least know about it.

Iena tries to push away the helpless doubt that they know what ice is and what it could be used for. Maybe they don't know. She has no knowledge of their lives past them being demon slayers, and she'll keep it that way.

Tanjiro does a double-take. "How do you have ice?!" He gasps. "It's not winter!"

"We have an icehouse on the other side of the manor from where you guys are," She casually explains.

"An icehouse?" Inosuke leans forward with a toothy grin. "Like a house filled with ice?!"

Iena makes a face. "Yeah." If he can understand that way, then why correct him. His definition is essentially accurate.

Tanjiro passionately draws in a breath with his mouth and exhales just as passionately through his nose. "Can we see the icehouse, Fujdio-san?" He asks, twinkled stars for eyes.

"Yeah, I wanna see it too!" Inosuke joins in

Iena pretends to think about it, her index finger on her chin and eyes raised to her skull. But the obvious answer is, "No."

Tanjiro hunches his back and hangs his head low, quite the opposite of Inosuke who looks ready to pounce on the unsuspecting heiress.

"I brought ice for your ribs." The book posits that ice helps reduce swelling by decreasing the blood flow in the area. Another added benefit that it serves as an alternative pain reliever.

"The ice will help reduce swelling," Iena says, snagging some ice from the bucket. It's already slippery and wet from the change in temperature. Iena is surprised it hasn't become a bucket of water yet. It really speaks to the strength of whatever keeps the icehouse functional.

She wraps the ice in the cloth and makes sure it's secured. It'd be a big mess if it ends up falling on the _tatami_. That wouldn't do the mats any good.

She should keep a close eye on Zenitsu in case he starts with his bumbling antics.

"The last goes first this time," she announces. "Agatsuma-kun." She beckons him forward. Zenitsu is in front of her in a hot second.

"Yes, Goddess-chan!"

Iena offers him a wrapped iced cloth and she helps him gain a good grip on it. She hears Zenitsu let out a string of dopey giggles at her hands over his, fixing his fingers to hold the cloth firmly and properly.

"You're creepy when you laugh," She tells Zenitsu without any eye contact. His giggles stop and his face sags. She bites her cheek. It almost triggers a laugh from her for how ridiculous his face changed.

"Goddess-chan! That's not nice!" He whines right in her ear. He quickly descends into his whiny fits about how unkind she's being today and maybe hugs, his hugs specifically, can cure the mean spirit embodied in her. If that's true, maybe she should dial her intentions down a little.

One cursory glance at all three of them, her lips press together and she shakes her head. This is necessary for her and them. They'll both benefit. The guys can finally be free to do their demon duties and she can finally rest her mind, just a sliver before she has to do her heiress duties. They'll be free, while she…

Iena puffs her cheeks similar to a chipmunk and blows it out not too long after.

"Goddess-chaaaaaaaannnn!" Her ears are definitely going to crumble into nothing if he doesn't quiet down.

Iena guides his hand towards his ribcage. Zenitsu shrieks, his eyes hopping out of his sockets. "COLD!"

"Ice is supposed to be cold," She speaks like she's trying to explain something obvious to an idiot.

"Why are you talking to me like that! You're talking as if I'm a dummy!" Zenitsu cries.

"You don't know what ice is so I have to," She replies, no intention to be rude or mean in any way. Which is why she has a questionable expression when she sees Zenitsu go still, jaw as wide as the _shoji_ at the far end of the room.

_'I know what ice is!'_ Zenitsu shouts to himself, feeling so, so insulted.

Zenitsu whimpers as he complains throughout the whole process.

Tanjiro has no problem with the ice treatment. Actually, when she leans the iced rag on his ribcage, he has a tiny smile, eyes pleasantly closed.

Flowers obscure her vision.

Yellow Camellia: _Nostalgia_

Tea Rose: _Always Remember_

Iena parts her lips, but remains wordless.

Inosuke is undeniably difficult, not from him refusing to accept the treatment, but his desire to pinpoint where his ribcage is without Iena's help. Of course, she keeps correcting him where his ribs are located, but he continues to be outrageously ignorant until Iena has enough and plants the iced cloth to his ribs.

The therapy done, she gives the boys privacy to change into their casual clothes and…

"Icehouse!" Inosuke screams the moment she re-enters the room.

His male _kimono_ is a black and dark blue color scheme, top dark blue with a white quilted like pattern and black _hakama_ pants. It's a really fitting outfit for him.

Inosuke starts running around in circles, his chants loud and wild across the room. Iena is mildly alarmed. She thought she squashed the icehouse topic. But, even with him running around like a person on fire, his embalmed blue eyes show stubbornness, unyielding and aglow.

"Icehouse! I wanna see the icehouse!" His chants are endless.

"No, you can't." Iena puts an end to his parade.

Inosuke stops dead in his tracks. "Why not?!"

"Because…" She thinks of a good, rational reason. "…I said so."

"Like I'll take that for a reason!" Inosuke glares at Iena, then points a finger at her in defiance. "The Great Inosuke demands to see the icehouse!"

"Hey! Can't you take no for an answer?! She said no!" Zenitsu says, wearing a beige top with scattered bamboo leaves in a fawn shade, his _hakama_ pants a dark red that compliments the top of his _kimono_. Tanjiro wears the one she saw before, the seaweed green with the white rolling clouds top and beige _hakama_ pants.

Where did Nana get these nice clothes?

Zenitsu turns to her, and for some peculiar reason, he pushes his two fingers together. "Though it'd be great to see what it looks like…" he trails off.

And Tanjiro picks up the trail. "Please, Fujido-san?"

Iena is speechless. The blond guy actually has a soft voice range!

Newfound fact aside, she put some thought behind it. Will it really be that bad for her to show them the icehouse?

She eyes them, from black to blond to burgundy. At the worst time, flowers fall on them like a slow waterfall.

Bouvardia: _Enthusiasm_

Bluebells: _Gratitude_

Lisianthus: _Appreciation_

Then, Iena recalls the flowers she saw while treating Tanjiro.

Yellow Camellia.

_Nostalgia._

Tea Rose.

_Always remember._

All from a cold touch.

She averts her eyes. Flattens her lips. Tilts her head upwards.

* * *

"Icehouse!" Inosuke cheers? Yells? Chells?

Inosuke chells again. "Icehouse!"

"We get it already." Zenitsu narrows his eyes, his hands having the giant urge to target Inosuke's neck.

She didn't mean to give in, but she did, and currently they're on their way to the far east side of the estate deep in the garden. Inosuke is filled with joy if his jumping and skipping isn't notable. Zenitsu cuts back and forth from wonder of what the icehouse will look like and vicious every time Inosuke's shouts smack him in his face. Tanjiro grips the handle of the ice bucket in anticipation—yes, the bucket, because he wouldn't quit asking if Iena needed help carrying the bucket, so she gave up with that too.

She blames the flowers.

They come upon the icehouse, a humble small shed that has the appearance of renewed life. The beveled roof is a smooth unbroken layer of red and the skin has grown a deeper color of brown. One could tell that this had been here for a while, but the outside was neat and impeccable enough to be an appropriate embellishment to the already picturesque manor.

"This is the icehouse," Iena introduces. The guys marvel at the shed, though Zenitsu raises a thick and brow and says, "It's small."

"We only store ice in here. It doesn't have to be big," Iena says briefly.

The key in her hand tosses around like loose change as she approaches the door. Her steady fingers fit the key into the lock and undo the bronze lock. With a grand clang, it comes off, and it's no exaggeration that Iena can feel their anticipation burning her back.

Inosuke rounds on her. "Open it! Open it!"

She opens the door and steps aside for them to enjoy the view.

Inside is a winter wonderland. Frost and ice are like vines on the barrels of ice and some of the frost glazes the ground like real snow. The icicles overhead sit clear and sharp from accumulated water drops. The cold from the room moves in and hit their faces, creeping under their clothes and lining their skin.

Inosuke takes one step forward. "Woah!"

"Cool! It's like winter in here!" Tanjiro gapes.

"What kind of place is this?!" Zenitsu yells in blind shock.

Iena observes their reactions vaguely and a feather-like touch surrounds her chest. The more she looks at them, she's bemused by whatever is coming from her chest. She tames her mouth and keeps her eyes forward.

Only to see Inosuke rush inside.

"Hashibira-kun!" She raises a hand after him, but seriously what is that going to do?

"This place is awesome!" Inosuke glows brighter than the frost on the ground. Out of nowhere, he stops. He inhales deeply and exhales the exact same. He repeats the action several more times until he spins to face Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Iena.

"Guys, look!" He pokes at his snout, breath rising as white puffs through the mask's nostrils. "When I talk, smoke comes out!"

"Don't you already do that?" Zenitsu asks dryly.

He dismisses Zenitsu in favor of studying every nook and cranny of the room, the barrels, ice blocks, the ice dust cemented to the walls.

"C'mon Zenjiro, Tanitsu! Get your asses in here!"

Every person within the vicinity not named Inosuke flip their lid **because** **the boar head committed so much injustice from that one sentence alone.**

"What the-?!" Tanjiro yells. "It's Tanjiro! Tanjiro!"

"How the hell did you mix that up?!" Zenitsu screams, mouth skewed and all over the place.

"Language! Watch your language!" Iena joins the 'shout at Inosuke' party.

Inosuke, at most, shrugs off all their complaints and continues his frolics around the ice room. Tanjiro and Zenitsu eventually did enter the room and Inosuke's joy peels and sticks to them as they survey everything, similar to exploring an archaic temple.

Iena can't deny, it's pretty amusing to see their reactions. To her, it's nothing but an unassuming shed stuffed with ice, but to them, it's a miracle or at least fascinating.

She suppresses tiny giggles. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to show them the icehouse.

That thought quickly deteriorates once she sees Insouke leap freely in the air and chop off two weirdly long icicles from the ceiling.

Why must he prove her wrong?

The boar head cackles into the air, cold wisps leaving his nose. "I call these—" he twirls them in actually amazing speed, his fingers unseen through it all. Iena momentarily forgets that she should be stopping him because, y'know **"limited activities."**

"The Great Inosuke's Cool Ice Swords!" He flaunts them around, falling into different fighting stances. He bends, he moves, his flexibility is outstanding. He flips around like a monkey, ice dust kicking in the air and to Iena's astonishment, he's not destroying anything he touches.

Like the theater, Iena thinks with starlit eyes. When she went to that all-female theatre performance, a handful of women were twirling batons and other equipment so majestically, Iena was enchanted.

But Inosuke is doing it ten times better!

At the end of Insouke's performance, she finds herself clapping alongside Tanjiro close to maybe entreating Inosuke for another grandiose performance.

"Are you two seriously clapping to this?!" Zenitsu screams. Cold smoke blasts from his mouth like a dragon after his fire breath simmers.

Iena turns to Zenitsu, a slight tilt of her head and her index finger to her chin. "But, it was nice." And Tanjiro mirrors that sentiment with a smile that just annoys the crap out of Zenitsu.

"No, it wasn't! He's just being an idiot!" Zenitsu argues.

She guesses the punishment the blond receives for calling Inosuke an idiot is an ice sword chucked at his face, courtesy of Mr. Boar Man.

"Ice swords!" Mr. Boar Man roars to the ceiling.

She must not have been paying attention at all **because why does Inosuke have so many icicles at his disposal?**

"Hashibira-kun." Iena points to the gang of long, sharp icicles in his hands quite hopelessly. "Why?"

His answer has an icicle coming her way through a carefree throw. She catches it. On contact, the ice steals the warmth of her hand, but it's no discomfort. She blinks at the sword-like icicle and really can't understand why Inosuke would give her an "ice sword."

When she tears her attention from the icicle, she sees that Tanjiro and Zenitsu got one too.

Iena can tell, behind that furry boar mask, Inosuke is pleased by his supposed sharing.

His supposed sharing as a chance to fight everyone.

"Taste my ice swords!" Everyone in the vicinity who's name isn't Inosuke flinches. "PIG ASSAULT!"

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Iena fly out of the icehouse in hopes that they won't become mush on the soles of Inosuke's feet. They watch Inosuke sprint out the door, his ice swords cold, wet and dangerous for whoever wants to cross him.

Clearly, no one feels like doing that.

"You brainless boar head!" Zenitsu rages, eyes bigger than dinner plates. "You almost trampled Goddess-chan!"

But Zenitsu's rants don't reach him. He's completely out of earshot distance, running around the yard with constant yells and swings of his ice sword.

The icicle in Iena's hand melts between the gaps of her fingers, but she still holds onto it. Why won't she put it down? It's wet, slippery and has her blood confused on which parts of her hand it should rush to.

Tanjiro looks like he'll burst into confetti as he admires his ice sword. Of course, it's not the length of his real sword, but it's pretty long to mimic it.

"I wonder if I can use this as one of my forms." Tanjiro whips his head to Zenitsu in his giddiness. "I could make a breath-form to freeze my water attacks!"

"I don't think it works like that, Tanjiro," Zenitsu states.

Then, the two demon slayers debate on whether Tanjiro could freeze his water attacks, Tanjiro wholeheartedly believing he could do so by training and optimism while most of Zenitsu's arguments are blatantly saying it's impossible and that Tanjiro's a numbskull.

Afterwards, too influenced by Inosuke's howls of their messed up names, they break their debate and rush to join in with child-like excitement, leaving Iena in the dust.

Iena has half a mind to join them.

It looks fun, their smiles say so. Her constant switching from the icicle to the guys gives her a slight headache. Or maybe that's her thinking too much into things. What if she did join them?

She'll get wet for sure since the icicles are already melting under the sun. She can't ruin this nice, luxurious _kimono_ Komi bought for her.

Also, Inosuke seems to be the one to play rough, right?

They'll ask for more ice, yes, they will. Tanjiro did say he wants to try a new "breath-form" or something to that effect.

And those sword techniques. She'll be participating, following those same sword techniques, the same ones that ruined everything.

* * *

"**_Don't__ look!_**_"_

* * *

Unwanted thoughts hammer her mind, pushing out waves of dark memories. Iena presses the heel of her dry hand to her forehead

She drops the icicle.

"Oi, Mushido!" Inosuke calls. "C'mon!"

"It's too cold for me to hold, Hashibira-kun." She throws out an empty reply. "Continue. I'll watch from the sides."

Iena walks away and promptly locks the door to the icehouse.

"Damn! I wanted her to fight me!" Inosuke stomps. "When I saw her throw you guys across the room, I wanted to challenge her since then!"

"How can you fight her with this?" Zenitsu brandishes his ice sword. "I'm surprised it hasn't shattered with how much we're waving it around. And she's not a demon, you can't fight her!"

Tanjiro ignores his two friends, He's too captured in silently gazing at Iena, a deep frown tucked in his mouth.

She lied just now. He smelt it and even more. Hurt. Sorrow. Upset.

"Fujido-san…"

* * *

Iena doesn't talk to them for most of the afternoon. The few exchanges she gives are strictly obligatory.

The sun sets and fans a calm red above the Fujido estate.

Iena figures around this time Nana must be prepping dinner so she wanders into the kitchen to give a helping hand.

"Do you need help with dinner, Nana?' She asks. The way Iena is positioned—half her body hovering the counter, hands out to grab a knife- she shouldn't have asked. Nana has been doing most of the cooking ever since the demon slayers came. It's only fair that she takes the reins.

Nana definitely needs the help, she says to herself. Not in a convincing manner. She's not trying to convince anyone. No one at all.

Nana settles for a tiny smile of gratitude. "If you want to help, you can," She simply says. She continues chopping the green onions, a fast, steady crunchy rhythm.

Iena swipes a knife and begins to chop a cucumber on the counter, more than likely the start of a *_sunomono_.

A cozy silence descends, noise and words channeled toward a well- balanced diner. But Iena lifts the silence away.

"Nana," Iena calls, voice a little above a whisper. She keeps her eyes downcast, stick to the miso broth she stirs in an unbalanced rhythm.

Nana hums as a sign for the girl to continue.

"I…" She hesitates. "I should've asked you this a long time ago, but…" She hopes she won't step on a sore spot. It's seldom she asked the old woman this, but irritatingly needs to do so.

"How did you do it?" Iena's feet shift against the kitchen floor. "How did you come not to resent us…me and Komi-oba?"

The boiling miso soup is the only present sound. Iena attempts to take her time to slowly not be unsettled by it. It's a hard question, and Iena doesn't enjoy clawing through people's past. But this could help her, help her stop clawing away at the estate's past. Her past.

Iena is tired of being troubled. She thought she abandoned her troubles, those burdened memories, but they keep showing up, reviving faithfully beside her again.

Ever since the demon slayers came, it won't stop.

By the time Iena leaves her mind, Nana is done with the rice.

Nana has her back to Iena. "A frog in a well does not know the great sea."

Iena falters and suddenly has a desperate need to see Nana. Nana is already staring at her under fluttering eyelashes, the lines on her face arranged firm but kind. She rests a hand on her chest.

"I learned a great lesson, and I thank you and Komi-sama for it."

Iena's breath seemed to stutter in her lungs before she lets it go, tension at pace with her breathing. She didn't teach Nana anything. The taciturn Nana that came to the estate years ago, all she and Komi did was offer kindness as any other person deserved. That was all it took to gain Nana's trust.

"But…" Iena moves closer to Nana, her reluctance completely gone. "The first family. They treated you like a slave."

"Yes, they did." Nana's voice comes soft.

"The second family they left you in a burning house during the Kawagoe fire!"

"The scars on my shoulders healed nicely, don't you think?"

Iena stares at Nana crestfallen. She's so nonchalant about it. Being treated like an object then years later almost burned to death in a fire.

However, she holds nothing. No distrust, or malice, or pent up destructive emotions an invasive, thorny vine twirled around her mind.

Iena never voiced it, but she'd believe that it was too easy for Nana to get over such traumatic incidents. To seek out families to work for, knowing the number of tragedies Nana dealt with families similar in wealth like the Fujido estate.

It's like being surrounded by snakes and trying to figure out which one isn't poisonous. One would have to assume all are poisonous after a few deadly bites.

"Iena." Nana's voice sounds like spun sugar. "Do you want me to resent you?"

"No, never!" Iena cries. Imagining a world where Nana hates her, she could never accept it. Panic flashes in her eyes as she becomes unfocused.

Yet, Nana, as the beautiful caring person she is, whisks Iena's hands into her tender grip. In that wrinkled grip, Iena's panic comes to an end and she feels centered. Despite Nana's hands having a fish smell, Iena returns the grip wholeheartedly.

"A frog in a well does not know the great sea," She says harmoniously. "Please remember this as the days come and go."

Iena hears her words. She doesn't know what the phrase means, doesn't know how that sentence alone can fix the turmoil in her mind. But she definitely feels better than she did before. Those words nestle in her head so deeply, two-hour cooking feels like thirty minutes and she finds herself in front of the demon slayer's door, the porcelain oceanic tray covered by sorted bowls filled with tonight's dinner.

However, she quickly recognizes the aura, that heavy aura leaking from the room like a drifting puddle. Iena doesn't move.

She's out of the box.

Iena breathes in and out as slow as she can. The demon, Nezuko, won't do anything to her, right? She proved that days ago.

But that aura is so unsettling, Iena feels her neck sweat from how off-putting it is.

She has to go inside to deliver the food regardless.

She balances the tray with one hand and slides the door open with her other. What comes to view is Tanjiro kneeling in front of his demon sister, hands aloft as if he was telling her a bedtime story.

That, and he's also keeping Zenitsu at bay from pouncing on his sister.

Inosuke is outside on the _*engawa_ actually placid. Iena drops her mouth to this. This guy can be calm? From the time he came and until now, Inosuke was nothing but a ball of energy.

What she currently sees is him chilling beneath the sparkles of the wisteria trees.

Another newfound fact: Inosuke has a calm side.

Tanjiro looks at the door straight to her. "Fujido-san. I was wondering when you were going to come inside."

Iena narrows her eyes at him. '_Your nose. I'm not safe_.'

She shifts her attention to Nezuko who blinks a charming hello to her.

"Mmmgh."

With speed to match Zenitsu, she appears by Iena's side. Iena instinctively takes a step back. Her aura is overwhelmingly awful. Her face scrunches as though she ate a lemon.

In harmless gesture, Nezuko's hand reaches to pat Iena on the head, light gentle taps accompanied by mellow hums. Iena blushes a bit, ears a tad bit red.

"Um…Thank you?" She says stiffly.

Inosuke's relaxed state doesn't keep for too long. The second he sees the food tray, he scrambles to the _chabudai_ in his usual commotion. "Yes! Food!"

Trying not to be awkward by Nezuko's greeting, Iena takes small shuffling steps required of an up and coming heiress to the table. Tanjiro and Zenitsu meet them at the table and while Iena serves their dinner, Zenitsu wiggles his thick eyebrows to her.

"Are you gonna eat with us again, Goddess-chan?" Zenitsu asks with half-lidded eyes.

"I already had my dinner," She replies, pouring some cold lemon tea in his cup.

Tanjiro shoots her a sidelong look of worry. Another lie.

Zenitsu deflates "Damn it."

Her job done, she heads for the _shoji_ tray in hand only to be stopped by one mild tug. Iena tries not to feel perturbed by the tug, especially when she spins around sees pink serene eyes gaze at her underneath butterfly lashes. Nezuko continues to tug at the back of Iena's *_yukata_ like a child would a mother to get attention. Iena's grip on the tray tightens.

Tanjiro smiles, warm and supportive. "Nezuko wants you to stay."

The demon girl quickens her tugs.

And, just like how she caved when it came to the icehouse, she caves in again.

With the tray resting on the dresser, she kneels next to Nezuko while the guys eat their dinner. Nezuko opts to entertain herself. She lays flat on her back and swings her legs in the air, a true representation of a duck paddling in a pond. Her arms flap around against the floor. Iena watches her, so transfixed **because** **she looks so cute doing it**.

This shouldn't be happening. The uncomfortable aura surrounding her reminds her too.

Iena squeezes her eyes and turns her head away from the cuteness.

But, Nezuko is a funny demon.

When she sees this, Nezuko crawls close to the heiress and plops her head on Iena's lap. Iena nearly leaps out of her skin. She settles her head, most likely aware that if she keeps her head there, Iena is anchored to the floor and won't be allowed to leave.

Iena's mouth is slightly open by how bold and wildly out of nowhere Nezuko's affection is. What did she do to be given this? Or is she generally this affectionate.

Nezuko starts paddling like a duck again, making sure Iena can absorb each and every stroke and flap. Iena has a grimace, her senses telling her to push the demon girl off her lap.

But, the inevitable happens.

Judging from one glance at the table, Zenitsu and Inosuke got into a spat and Zenitsu is about ready to scream the whole room his story.

"What the hell are you doing you dumb boar?! That's my food! You put your dirty hands in my food! How am I supposed to eat this now?!"

"Can you shut up for once, annoying coward," Inosuke says flippantly, mouth filled with food.

Zenitsu lets out a screech on par with a crow. "Don't tell me to shut up when you're the one stealing my food!"

"Quiet down, Zenitsu. Can't you share with Inosuke?" Tanjiro advises, half annoyed and half disappointed.

"What did you just say, you forehead freak! He's the one taking my food, and I have to share with him?!" Zenitsu grabs Tanjiro's shoulders, shaking him endlessly as he laments the tragic death of his food

"You're supposed to be on my side, Tanjiro!"

"Zenitsu, I want to eat!"

Iena witnesses their interactions absently. No matter how outrageous they are, regardless of each dumb act Inosuke pulls or the ear-splitting screams Zenitsu lets out or the randomness of Tanjiro and his inability to read the mood, they have a tight bond. She doesn't know how long they've been friends, but they are puzzle pieces that are fated to join together and never break.

Iena can see it, nice and clear.

The urge to giggle rears and the methods she's been using to hold back this urge aren't too helpful.

Nezuko searches Iena's face from above. She makes a quiet, muffled hum, the bamboo muzzle giving a whispery effect to it.

To Iena's surprise, Nezuko grabs her cheeks.

Iena flinches as the girl's demon nails graze her cheek. Those demon nails are sort of scary, but it has a neat and polished look to them, definitely breaking Iena's expectations.

Nezuko squishes her cheeks similar to the way Komi squishes and mushes her cheeks. The squishing stops but she still has an infant-like grip on her cheeks.

Nezuko lifts Iena's cheeks to form a smile.

"Nezuko, you can't do that to Fujido-san's face," Tanjiro lectures.

"It's okay," Iena interjects.

Tanjiro stops. He blinks at her with curious eyes, but Iena doesn't meet them. She stares at Nezuko. Her aura is really discomforting. It really is.

But her personality isn't. The heiress guesses she can tolerate this sweet demon girl.

* * *

After leaving the room for a few minutes to have dinner by herself, Iena returns and spends most of the evening with Nezuko, not really acknowledging the guys all too much (to Zenitsu's dismay). It wasn't much. Nezuko stayed in her lap for most of the time. They maybe played two hand games and soon called it a night once Nezuko was getting drowsy.

She's a good girl. Demon or not.

_But how is she a demon?_

Don't ask questions you have no business being a part of, she tells herself as soon as the question comes up. She doesn't need to know, especially since they'll be leaving soon.

Iena washes the dishes, puts them away and gets ready for bed herself. Soon, another question pops up.

_What did Nana mean by that phrase?_

"_**A frog in a well does not know the great sea."**_

Is that how Nana let go of her past?

How can she move on if she doesn't know what the phrase means, if every day, from now onwards, she has to take care of people who caused her such pain?

Iena rests the heel of her hand to her forehead.

"Iena?"

Komi stands in front of her door. Iena doesn't know how long she's been waiting, but hopefully not for too long. Her aunt is the impatient type.

Iena looks her up and down multiple times.

"I don't have anything on me so quit it," Komi says unamused.

Iena sighs in relief. She's not in the mood to dodge for her life at the moment.

Komi doesn't move for seconds. She just stares, at her or empty space, Iena isn't sure, but her aunt doesn't have an expression on her face, lost in thoughts Iena can't decipher.

Iena's eyebrows knit together in concern. Her aunt looks so haunted, she wishes she can do something about it. But Komi remains tight-lipped. It makes Iena's heart clench. Right now, her playful side isn't in front of her nor her practical side.

Iena knows it can't be her curfew. It's only 9:00.

"Komi-oba…?" Iena eventually murmurs.

As if the call of her name is a trigger, Komi swiftly walks to Iena and embraces her. Iena's eyebrows leap like grasshoppers. She returns the embrace without thought, but can't help but be confused by the sudden action.

"Komi-oba," Iena says into her chest. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Her aunt cradles her head and holds her like a treasure that no one in the world can ever touch. Her pink lips ask, "Am I a bad aunt?"

Iena is dumbfounded by the question. Rarely does doubt come and plague her aunt, but she can definitely hear it, feel it.

And now see it.

Purple Verbena: _Regret_

Purple Hyacinth: _Apologetic_

What is she sorry for?

Nevertheless, Iena relaxes in Komi's warm embrace, so warm and cozy and motherly. It nearly lulls her to sleep, and with her black hair a curtain around her head, it takes effort for her not to fall asleep right there.

It's then she remembers Komi's question.

"You're not a bad aunt," Iena answers in a sweet whisper.

Komi lays her chin atop of Iena's head. "Y'know, you're supposed to follow up with 'you're the best aunt ever, the best in all of Japan'."

"Then I'd be lying, Komi-oba."

Komi slightly backs away from the embrace, disbelief in her blue eyes. "What're you trying to say?"

"If you're the best aunt ever, then you're perfect." Iena shakes her head slowly. "I don't want a perfect aunt. I want Komi-oba."

Iena doesn't get to see Komi's face because her aunt immediately draws her into another embrace, this one somehow warmer than the last. This time around, Iena closes her eyes, wrapped in such comforting darkness.

"I love you, Iena. Don't ever forget that, no matter what."

"Hmmm…I love you too, Komi-oba," She says, words covered in sleepiness.

And she falls asleep, tight in Komi's arms.

* * *

Three nights later, the pitter-patter of small footsteps echoes near Iena's room door.

She stops tidying her room. Her eyes land on the _shoji_. It's instinctive to be cautious and antsy at sudden sounds, but she knows who's behind that door. It is quiet, yet the atmosphere around bears weight tangible enough to sit on her shoulders.

The door slides open and Nezuko runs into the room. Iena knew she was there; she's the only demon in the house, and while the girl is a sweetheart, her senses can't distinguish certain demons amongst the bunch. Demons are demons and humans are humans, a dichotomy her senses abide by and can barely control.

The demon girl, beautiful as always, shows sincere joy in seeing Iena. But, Nezuko looks really different.

"Why are you a toddler, Nezuko?"

Apparently, by word of hanafuda earrings' mouth, Nezuko can go up and down the growth spectrum. She can be tiny and in seconds grow big, not gargantuan size where she can tear up a village, but age-wise. She keeps to her regular age, but from time to time, she stays in midget mode.

For instance, right now.

"You're here. Where's the nutty trio?" Iena asks as she scans around for them. Kind of stupid of her since she could feel their human aura if they were close. It's only Nezuko at the moment, looking really, really adorable.

Nezuko randomly touches Iena and flees, leaving her dumbstruck to what occurred in the space of a second. She digs around the possibilities of what Nezuko's action meant. She came in happy and all, touched her, then dashed out as if she was never here.

Iena cocks her head, one finger tapping her chin. "Does she... want to play tag?"

She jogs to the door. The demon girl is close, she can definitely tell, definitely feel. Iena counts her breath, refuses to shudder because the heavy feeling is Nezuko, and Nezuko has proven her worth as a nice demon, docile, sweet and harmless. They both can't help it.

Iena spots Nezuko close to one of the guest rooms on the first floor in the west wing of the house. "Nezuko?"

She can hear her muffles from the second floor and once she sees Iena coming downstairs, the girl runs away again.

She does want to play tag!

And she entertains Nezuko's request and joins the game. The more and more Iena plays, the more immersive it becomes, as Nezuko is proving extremely hard to catch for no particular reason, which means that Iena's goal to catch her is getting shinier and shinier the more they progress.

And that's how Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke stumbles on them playing tag. They're two small balls ricocheting everywhere, zipping in crazy pursuit, loud wind noises at their tail.

Nezuko is having fun, pale pink eyes bright and playful.

But Iena looks very, very determined.

"Tanjiro, Tanjiro! Don't they look cute?! I can watch this forever!" Zenitsu says gushing over the two girls.

"That looks fun! I bet I can catch both of them!" Inosuke prepares to join in.

"You're not invited!" Zenitsu screeches, pulling Inosuke by the back of his sleepwear. Zenitsu stops and observes the game, namely Iena's face throughout. "What kind of face is that?!"

Iena looks very insane, wisteria eyes wide and wild. The sound coming from her, a fierce, erratic beating of a drum, is evidence. Whether she's frustrated or competitive, Zenitsu prays for the safety of her own mind.

"Yeah. It seems like she has a stomachache. That's not good. If she has a stomachache, she shouldn't be playing with Nezuko," Tanjiro says worriedly.

Zenitsu looks at each one of Tanjiro's features and wonders if he could punch it off one by one. _You, sir, are very inconsistent with common sense._

Zenitsu cuts his internal threat and really observes Iena now. She's having a hard time catching Nezuko, yes, but, for a regular person, her movements are nimble and agile as if she had some physical training or some derivative of it. He knows he should not be quick to judge by appearances—and it's hard for him because he's a guy, and beautiful girls can melt his judgment to nothing—but he would have never thought she was or is undergoing some type of training.

But, he clearly remembers the overall pain he felt when she threw him and Tanjiro across the room the first night. That must've been a sign.

"Is that why her thighs are thick?" Zenitsu questions, half analyzing and half a thick thigh fantasy.

Tanjiro overhears him "What was that, Zenitsu?"

"You see it too right, Tanjiro? Goddess-chan..."

Tanjiro instantly knows what Zenistu means. He nods. He sees it too. She moves as if she received physical training. He's not negating that someone can be naturally athletic, but her movements are precise and keen. It's not natural. They can tell her movements were taught and practiced. There's too much of a desperate edge towards it that wasn't originally there. It reminds him of his apprenticeship under Urokodaki, running through a mountain full of death traps.

"Is Komi-san training her?" Tanjiro adds in a question.

"For what?" Zenitsu follows up. "It can't be for her to become a demon slayer. She doesn't like them—and us for that matter. She called demon slayers buffoons—"

"—who thinks the world owes them a favor," Tanjiro ends his sentence. He wholly remembers what she said the first night. Are there other people who think like Iena? People are ignorant about demons and demon slayers in general, but there is a sliver who're aware of the supposed myths. Are demon slayers losing respect from the already small mass that has knowledge of them and demons?

"What're you doing, Mushido?! You almost had her!" Inosuke shouts.

Tanjiro returns to the game, and Inosuke is right. Just as Iena gets close to catching Nezuko, she takes a sharp left and shoots off to an open corridor. Iena breaks her pursuit and assesses on what else to do. It's sweet luck that Nezuko went through an open corridor; she can cross from here to there with relative ease.

But alas, Nezuko is a demon, and demon powers are completely unfair.

While she crossed over to the open corridor, Nezuko flips and uses the wall to the right to kick against the wall with force. The paintings and small tapestries of tori gates rattle under her feet, which Iena immediately notices. It jars Iena to stop the game.

Nezuko bounces away from the wall. Her stunt lands her safe on the second floor, a few feet away from the three boys. Regaining her original age, she witnesses the worry in Iena's face all the way from the second floor, eyebrows knit together on holding her frustration from her actions.

Nezuko's eyebrows cave into emotion, too, the only sign she can show her regret.

"Nezuko," Iena says her name firmly but somehow lament. She walks briskly to the ornamented wall and inspects it. Thankfully, there's no bruising or scuff mark on the wall. It's still beautiful just like the day it was embellished.

Her big sigh of relief thins her lungs.

Seeing it all, Tanjiro frowns at his sister. "Nezuko," He reprimands, "you shouldn't have done that. You could've damaged the wall."

"Mmmphhg." Her shoulders sag at his words.

Zenitsu knows what Nezuko did was wrong and deserves to be lectured, but his savior of cute girls' sense is rising, and it can't bear to see an unhappy Nezuko.

'Tanjiro, you filthy animal!' Zenitsu's soul screams.

Iena climbs up the stairs. She faces the now visibly sad Nezuko. Her eyes close as her head droops the minute Iena eyes her.

A demon's not supposed to be this sentimental.

'Who cares about a human's feelings', should be her thought process. But here she is. She doesn't dare look up because of her steaming guilt. The rarest of rare.

It makes her feel fuzzy inside like someone blew hundreds of dandelions inside her stomach.

Iena's face relaxes, and she reaches her hand to pat Nezuko's head. Underneath her hand is soft and smooth from her tidy black hair. Receiving a sheepish upward stare, Iena can only smile.

"It's ok, Nezuko. All is forgiven."

Iena is unprepared for the big hug Nezuko gives her, arms around her neck and face against face. She pets Iena's hair and from the spaces of her bamboo muzzle releases a mellow sound. She hears Nezuko's relief and happiness all in one.

Iena is in disbelief. Her senses are being pressured by Nezuko's overwhelming aura. It projects great weight and is very off-putting, but her hug has the warmth of a human being. While she is what she is, it feels right for her to have this warmth.

Or it has already been there.

Flowers appear like petal curtains around Nezuko:

Cape Jasmine: _Happiness_

Chrysanthemum: _Cheerful, Friendship_

Iena starts out hesitant, but her arms gradually fold, and she returns the hug.

Zenitsu swoons at the sight. "Nezuko-chan~! Goddess-chan~! They're hugging! Cute, so cute!"

With a simple gesture, Tanjiro can see so much. Iena has compassion for Nezuko, and through her compassion, he can see a sense of Iena's true self. She's accepted Nezuko so quick, and Nezuko clearly likes her; it raises a soft smile on his face.

Hopefully, she can accept him, Zentisu, and Inosuke too.

* * *

The boys made no fuss about the medicine this time around, readily accepting it. She did sweeten it a little more, so that's more likely the reason why.

Inosuke had an idea to cause some chaos, but when he remembered what she did to him that made him a dying fish on the floor, he restrained himself and drank the medicine. It proved some positive results, as Tanjiro told her he can breathe easier. It was also recognized by the doctor. He noticed their physical appearance had gotten better and their difficulty breathing lessened.

When evening takes the sky, Iena makes sure she bathes right after the demon slayers do. She finishes, changes into her nightgown, and leaves her room.

"Where are you going?" Komi-oba asks from outside her door, a mischievous coating amongst her question.

"You should be in your room resting, Komi-oba," Iena replies.

"I'm going to get some rest. I feel sleep in my eyes." She smirks. "But you have yet to answer my question."

Iena bites her lip and touches the cuff of her yukata. "I'm..."

"Going to the boys' room. You're growing fond of them," Her aunt teases and adds in a little giggle.

Iena begrudgingly has to admit that her ire towards them has smoldered somewhat, but the boys aren't the reason why she's going to their quarters. It's

.

.

.

"Nezuko."

The demon girl hears the call of her name and turns to the _shoji_, where Iena peeks at her with a good-natured smile and twinkles in her eyes. Nezuko mirrors the same twinkles in her eyes. Their eyes twinkle together before Nezuko rushes over to Iena, bobbing her head to indicate she wants a pat on her head.

Iena pats her head and Nezuko closes her eyes in bliss. She never would've thought she'd end up liking a demon, but the otherwise impossible thought is taking place as she continues to pat the girl's head.

She's comforted patting her head too; Nezuko's hair is enjoyable to stroke.

The boys watch them interact from the sidelines. Tanjiro and Zenitsu have a warm smile on their faces while Inosuke just looks at them and shrugs.

"Goddess-chan really likes Nezuko-chan, huh?" Zenitsu's smile turns dopey. "Who wouldn't like a cute girl like Nezuko-chan?"

Tanjiro nods. "I'm happy. She was uncertain about her before, but it seems they're becoming good friends."

Nezuko was instantly successful in winning Iena's favor, but Tanjiro and his friends aren't fully in her good graces. Now, maybe if it wasn't for Nezuko, Iena wouldn't be coming here on her own accord. Initially, when he sniffed out her emotions, all he could smell was contempt. He couldn't help but wonder why since they'd just arrived and committed nothing against her or the Fujido Estate. He soon came to learn it's not them in particular, but demon hunters as a whole. For unknown reasons, the girl has a dislike for demon hunters and wants nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, her family's duties are to accommodate demon hunters.

Maybe she's been slighted by a couple of demon hunters in her past.

Tanjiro observes the two-tone haired girl as she plays hand games with Nezuko.

Iena and Nezuko end their game cheerfully. "Nezuko, what do you want to play next?" The demon girl perks up and her eyes widen, knowing what she wants to play. Nezuko takes Iena's hand and pulls her to her feet. Afterwards, she spins Iena in circles and skips around to Iena's surprise. The room is very spacious with an open corridor to the garden, so she doesn't mind it. Tanjiro immediately recognizes her actions.

"That's the *_kagome kagome_ game!" Tanjiro perks up.

Nezuko confirms with a nod as she continues to prance with Iena.

"What the heck is that?" Inosuke asks. He heard 'game' and it easily caught his attention.

"It's a game where one person plays a demon or an ogre and has to close their eyes. The others circle around the person while singing the song for the game. When the song stops, the person who plays the demon has to guess the person who's behind them," Tanjiro explains. "I used to play this game with my siblings all the time, though I'd usually lose." He laughs.

"Haha, of course you'll lose Chabiro! I'd easily win this game because I'm—"

"The great Insouke-sama, we know," Zenitsu mumbles. "I beg to differ."

Iena stops spinning around and blinks at them. "Oh...you guys are playing?"

"What do you mean by that!? You need more than two people to play!" Zenitsu shouts.

Nezuko dashes to her brother with Iena in tow and grabs his hand. "Nezuko?" She joins Tanjiro and Iena's hands together and goes to gather Zenitsu and Inosuke. She releases her hold on Iena's hand, makes Zenitsu hold it and positions Inosuke to complete the circle, pushing his hands into Tanjirou and Zenitsu's.

She places herself in the middle and covers her eyes in excitement. Everyone else stands still in pure awkwardness.

"Why are we holding hands? I don't wanna hold hands with you," Inosuke says to Zenitsu who just grits his teeth at his bold inconsiderate statement.

"You too! I'm doing this for Nezuko-chan!"

"I echo the boar's sentiments," Iena states, drawing her and Tanjiro's hand holding high in the air.

"Everyone, let's play! If not, let's at least play for Nezuko," Tanjiro stresses with a frown.

The rest of the teens have a debating silence until they finally concede.

Zenitsu raises one thick brow. "How can Nezuko-chan be it? She can't talk."

"Uh..." He glances at Nezuko. His sister offers him a nod. "Nezuko will be able to tell us in a different way," Tanjirou assures.

Iena opens her mouth to sing the _kagome kagome_ song:

_Kagome, kagome_

_The bird in the cage when will you come out?_

_During the night when dawn is close_

_The crane and the turtle slipped_

_Who is behind you now?_

Iena narrows her eyes at everyone as the circle stops moving. The game calls for everyone to sing, yet no one opened their mouths to chant one word. "Everyone's supposed to sing, not only one person," Iena says, a little annoyed.

However, her annoyance disappears as she's alarmed by all the eyes staring at her as if they were blown away by a sudden phenomenon that happened in a blink of an eye. Iena becomes perturbed at their stares and just has to voice how uncomfortable she is, "Why are all of you looking at me like that?"

"Because..." Zenitsu speaks first. "You have a beautiful voice!" He gushes in praise.

Iena regards him in mild surprise. Yet, his opinion doesn't stand alone. Tanjiro, Nezuko, and even Inosuke's gazes match with what Zenitsu said. Iena can't help but rub her head sheepishly. "Really?"

"Yes, your voice is very pretty, Fujido-san!" Tanjiro compliments. His sister eagerly nods along to her brother's words.

"Thank you. I don't really sing that much so it's nice to hear." A palm over her chest, she feels some type of fuzziness growing in there. It's the same feeling she had when Nezuko hugged her, but now it's spreading to her chest.

It feels really nice. As a matter of fact, she felt disappointed when it came and left during her hug with Nezuko.

But no. She wills herself to harden whatever is filling her chest and her face changes to a neutral expression as she says, "Back to the game."

This time, everyone sings, though Zenitsu attempts to force everyone to shut their mouths to allow Iena to sing, Inosuke shuts him up with one smack to the face.

Once they stop singing, Inosuke is the one behind Nezuko. He snickers. "She won't know it's me," he whispers not so subtlety.

The demon girl opens her eyes and straightens herself for her guess. Nezuko puts her hands on her hips, puffs out her chest and lifts her head to the sky, pretending to let out a grandiose laugh.

Zenitsu can't stand it.

"BWAAAHAAHAHHAHAH!" He knows Nezuko has to communicate her answer, but not in this way. He slaps his knee and continues laughing his kidney dead.

Tanjiro is also laughing, his hand glued to his forehead. "I-I think that's supposed to be you, Inosuke!" He points to the dumbfounded boar.

With all the ridiculous laughter surrounding her, Iena can't help but be infected by it too as she shields her laughter with her _yukata_ sleeve. The action does look like something Inosuke would do and she has only seen a sliver of his behavior.

No one is saved from Inosuke's death glares. He growls and stomps his feet. "Shut up! No way! She cheated!" He's not denying at all that Nezuko's performance is a perfect description of him.

"Hey, don't accuse Nezuko-chan of such things!" Zenitsu snaps.

"You shouldn't have talked then, Inosuke," Tanjiro tells him with a smile that's unintentionally pitiful. He doesn't want Inosuke to feel bad about losing. Probably he should convince Nezuko to switch places with him despite his loss.

"I didn't!"

"I heard you, and Nezuko clearly heard you too," Iena cuts in innocently. "If that was supposed to be a whisper, then you're horrible."

The echoes of gnashing teeth leave his mask as everyone continues to laugh. The game continues, them chanting the song like bubbly children in warm summer medleys. This time Zenitsu is behind Nezuko. Nezuko proves to be very good at the game. She kneels to the ground and pretends to be clinging onto someone so desperately, crying and shaking her head.

Laughter erupts again especially with Inosuke who throws his head back howling. This time, Iena can't hide it, clutching her stomach at Nezuko's portrayal of Zenitsu. The poor boy shrinks within himself.

"Nezuko-chan, is that what you think of me?" He murmurs, brooding behind the girl.

Somehow, Nezuko is getting a chance to portray almost everyone; Tanjiro is her next victim. She pumps her arms out and promptly starts to headbutt the air, throwing her head and back forth to the point she almost falls forward. Iena's mouth twists as she raises a brow.

"You like to headbutt people?" Iena turns to Tanjiro. He jumps at her question.

"N-No! I don't like doing it! I-I use it as a way to help people calm down!" He stammers his denial.

"You mean as a way to help people fall unconscious!" Zenitsu says between laughter.

"Yeah! That's the reason I have a huge bump on my forehead!"

Iena looks at Tanjiro in such a leery and uncertain way, he can smell a tidal wave of harsh judgment pouring from her nonstop. "It's not like that, Fujido-san!" Unfortunately, his defense is drowned by Inosuke and Zenitsu's laughter.

This _kagome kagome_ game is truly being unfair. Iena is behind Nezuko and is really dreading what act she has for everyone. Nezuko takes some of her hair and holds it in her face. She greets the hair with a small wave of her dainty hands and smiles so brightly at the piece of hair.

Iena realizes Nezuko is pretending her hair to be herself; so far so good. Nezuko drops her hair. The moment her eyes land on the boys, her happy face vanishes and what's left is a blank one mixed in with coldness and utter detachment. Iena frowns.

Does she really look like that when she looks at them?

Iena knows she's not that type of person to be standoffish, but how she feels about demon slayers always clouded her better judgment. Demon slayers ruined her family years ago and they still have the gull to be arrogant.

However, here she is laughing with demon slayers, talking and playing games, having the most fun she's had in years.

This is her reality and she doesn't know what to do.

Laughter snaps Iena from her slight daze.

"I'm sorry, Goddess- chan! I can't help it!l" Zenitsu points to Nezuko.

Wisteria colored eyes shift to Nezuko and she gasps her heart out. In the middle of the ring, Nezuko is hugging her thigh and pretends to weep and be depressed in an exaggerated manner.

"What!?" Iena cries slack-jawed. "Nezuko! Stop it! That's not funny! It isn't funny!"

* * *

_***Petal Falls***_

_Petal #11- Iena's afraid of cars._

_Petal #12- Zenitsu liked the way Iena gave him the medicine._

_Petal #13- The ice reminded Tanjiro of home in the mountains._

_Petal #14- Nana is aware of Komi's want for Iena to be friends with the boys, but believes Komi is too forceful. That thought makes Komi regret her decision._

_Petal #15 - To Nezuko, Iena has a similar aura to her mother. It makes her sad when Iena's uncomfortable around her._

_Petal #16- Inosuke was surprisingly cheering Iena on during her and Nezuko's game of tag._

_Petal #17- In actuality, when Tanjiro and Nezuko played the kagome kagome game with their siblings, they lost on purpose so everyone could have a chance to guess. There were still quarrels amongst the younger siblings despite of it._

_Petal #18 The kagome kagome game was planned by Nezuko for everyone to get along. It worked._

* * *

**_*Japanese Terms_**

**_*shoji - a Japanese sliding door_**

***_kakigori - a Japanese shaved ice made with sweet condensed milk._**

**_*tamago-kake gohan - a __Japanese rice topped or mixed with raw egg and soy sauce._**

**_*tamagoyaki - egg rolled omlette._**

**_*chabudai - a short-legged table used in traditional Japanese homes._**

**_*Itadakimasu -_** **_a _**_**Japanese phrase used before eating a meal. It means "I humbly receive" and is often used to thank someone for the meal**_.

**_*tatami - straw mat used as floor covering in a traditional Japanese home._**

**_*kimono - a long, loose robe with wide sleeves and tied with a sash. It's the traditional garment of Japan._**

**_*hakama - kimono pants, usually worn by men and/or mikos._**

**_*sunomono - Japanese vinegar cucumber salad._**

**_*engawa - a boarded floor running along the outside of a traditional Japanese home. It's often used as a type of veranda._**

**_*yukata - __a light cotton kimono or a lounging robe_**

**_*kagome kagome - __a Japanese children game. __One player is chosen as the demon or "it" like in tag. The person who's the demon cover their eyes and the other children join hands and walk in circles around the demon while chanting the song for the game. When the song stops, the demon has to try naming the person standing directly behind them._**

**_End of Chapter 3_**

* * *

**Hi, people. Hoped you enjoy this chapter. Sorry it took so long. Been going through some rough times. Don't know why, but 2020 ain't a good year at all. But we have to make the best of it, right?**

**Want to address one little thing: Shipping**

**If you post a review, please talk about the chapter and no shipping. Do you see any shipping at the moment? Right, everything is about friendship and familial love. You see any romance in the air (and don't say Zenitsu because we all know his love for girls is a part of his character)**

**What? You don't see any romance? Really? Then don't talk about shipping. **

**There will be romance in the future, yes, but there's none of it at the moment and won't be for a while.**

**Please respect me, my story, and my beta reader by talking about the chapters.**

**NCT out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Friends

**Chapter 4, out the door.**

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge, or 'Alligator-sensei'**

* * *

**_Chapter 4: Friends_**

* * *

**Beta: ZilverHope**

Iena decides that her trip to Hokori Mountain is long overdue and wakes up at daybreak to go on her hike.

"Look! She's here! Good morning, Goddess-chan~!"

"Hurry up! Let's go already!"

"Good morning, Fujido-san! We're ready to leave!"

She did not expect three demon slayers accompanying her on this hike.

"Huh, what's with that grumpy face, Goddess-chan?!"

* * *

Tanjiro told her he encountered Komi around the same time she arose. The woman felt guilty they were cooped in the house for the majority of the day and said they should join Iena for a friendly hike this morning. Tanjiro asked her if it was alright to do so and Komi said:

**"Man fact number five: Don't let women deny your fun."**

They donned their freshly washed demon slayer uniforms, and that's how Iena happened upon the scene of them waiting at the front gate for her. Her aunt knows that these hikes aren't for leisure (most of the time) but to collect herbs for her *_kampo _formulas. She can't have three clueless people interfering.

"I honestly have no clue what she meant by that," Tanjiro recalls, his eyes looking up and chin atop his fingers. He smiles. "But it's nice for Komi-san to think about our wellbeing."

Iena doesn't understand either but hearing it makes her feel queasy.

The four teens set on the path to the mountain, Zenitsu upset with Tanjiro for waking him at such daunting hours. Despite being honed to be an early bird, Zenitsu wasn't a morning person and didn't see the reason why they should be waking up so early on their days of healing.

Inosuke is excited and expresses that he too was getting tired of the same setting. But, he doesn't express it in words but in action: he's doing a creepy handstand, bending and folding his body as they walk along the path. Zenitsu gives him a disgusted look.

"Yuck." Iena says, eyes on him like one would a rat.

Inosuke leaps to his feet. "Stop saying yuck to me!" He yells, shaking a fist at her.

"What do you want me to say? Hooray? I say yuck to things that are disgusting. What you did was disgusting," She simply explains.

Inosuke marches to her. "Well, can you do a better handstand?!"

Iena thinks about it. "I don't know, maybe." She's definitely not flexible like him, but she can manage. She attributes that to her aunt and how she worked her as a mule. Before Komi-oba got chronic sickness, she was very flexible and was able to do a backflip from the ground to the roof with no effort. She can probably still execute those moves, but with how frequently she gets sick, Iena thinks she doesn't even want to do those types of things anymore.

"I wanna see you try! I already know you won't be able to do it better than me!"

"I don't want to."

"Do it!"

Tanjiro and Zenitsu, looking at Iena's outfit and seeing she has on a pearly purple pleated skirt, knee-length and very billowy, both of their heads whipped to the unsuspecting boar.

"Shut it, Inosuke! She says she doesn't want to!" Zenitsu shouts with a tomato-red face.

"I'm not talking to you, coward!" Inosuke shouts back in Zenitsu's face.

It's too early in the morning to argue, Iena sighs to the dewy air. How this turned into a shouting match is beyond her. They bicker too easily.

"You're the most flexible out of us all, Inosuke. That's more than enough, isn't it?" Tanjiro persuades, his cheeks also glowing red as he rests a hand on one of Inosuke's bare shoulders.

Inosuke stops in his tracks. He works out what Tanjiro said and once he figures out his own logic that he pulls from those words, he's instantly sedated. "Hahaha! Of course, it is!" As Inosuke celebrates himself, all the other teens nonchalantly keep walking.

That's one very effective way to shut Inosuke's trap.

Of course, the boys fare well in hiking the mountain—with broken ribs—undoubtedly from their training as demon slayers. She's a little jealous. The first time she tried to travel up Hokori Mountain, it almost killed her. She's fine now, but it still annoys her seeing them walk up the mountain with ease.

"Wow! This place is beautiful!" Tanjiro says as he marvels at the landscape. Listening to his amazement, Iena has a renewed appreciation for the mountain.

The mountain path grows wide where the soil is soft then narrows in the rocky passes. There are times it's barely there at all, no more than a mild disturbance in the dirt. But it always leads upward to the peak, the only destination the four of them can keep in mind.

The mountain is slick under the rainfall of a few days ago which is good. The last time she came here, the flora looked parched. Her gathering should be good today.

She checks on the boys and, for the first, really examines them. Inosuke really has a chiseled physique that disturbingly doesn't coincide with his face, so she's rather glad he keeps the boar head to cover it. She prefers it since it does make him more masculine in a wild man sort of way. He's completely in his element it seems; he's running imaginary laps around some foliage and is giddy about it.

Zenitsu's hair really does resemble a mop, but it fits him strangely. His face is somewhat girlish, but it's not to an extreme like Inosuke. His *_haori_ is a nice shade of yellow and fits the black demon slayer uniform similar to a bumblebee. A loud bumblebee, but if one is around the noisy buzzing long enough, it's bearable. She guesses it's already happening to her, unfortunately.

She admittedly failed to realize before, but with one look at Tanjiro, anyone can tell he's a nice person. His big burgundy eyes and smile are always lit and the way his hair is shaped reminds her of an endless burning fire, one that dances eternally no matter where it is. His checkered _haori_ is really nice and his hanafuda earrings are around the same length as her wisteria earrings, maybe longer. The chrysanthemum flower design in his earrings really does suit him. But it's the scar at the top left corner of his face that stands out to her. It's as if he were burnt by his own flame.

She's curious, but it's not the best time.

They walk further until Iena spots what she's looking for. She smiles and jogs towards the green and brown bush: a tree peony bark. It's already peeling which settles her worries of branch layering. She sets the basket on the ground and gawks at the tree. Iena gathered tree peony roots and buried them during fall and now it's near five feet tall. The difficult part now is cutting the branches up.

"What's that tree?" Zenitsu asks as he bounds towards her.

"It's a tree peony bush," Iena replies

"That's a bush?!"

Iena digs in her basket. Her hand hits her desired object. "Tree peony bushes can grow up to seven feet high." She draws out a garden machete, inspects the quality and sharpness. "I cut some of the bark off the tree for medicinal purposes." However, Iena notices her garden machete has been growing dull without her knowledge of it, a fatal mistake on her end. She should've checked it before she came here.

Does this mean no tree bark? Iena sighs.

"I'll help you, Fujido-san!"

Before she can recognize Tanjiro's voice, he's in his sword stance already unsheathing his black blade as he focuses on the tree peony.

Iena can see the impending damage right in her eyes, and she's cross on whether she should stop him or see if this can actually work.

And it actually does.

Tanjiro in perfect precision cuts off a thick branch of the bush and the minute he does, he effortlessly sheathes his sword. Iena stands there dumbly as Tanjiro gives her a radiant smile. "I saw that your machete was dull, so I wanted to help."

In her renewed silence, only her eyes glow to the boy's statement, impressed and entirely grateful for his handiwork. This big branch can keep her for a month. He helped her obtain her herbs and her having a penchant for *_kampo_, she can at least express her thanks.

"Thank you, Kamado-kun." Iena says with a brief smile. The light, fuzzy feeling from before when they played the _kagome kagome_ returns. It's stronger than before and it feels like flowers spinning open to flourish inside her.

"Of course! It's the least I can do. You and your family let us stay in your home, gave us food and clothes, a place to sleep, washed our clothes, and gave us medicine for our injuries. This is nothing."

His gratitude is unwarranted. Her clan is supposed to do those things. They're supposed to offer places for demon slayers to rest their heads and dream of a demon-free world. That's what they've established and groomed other households to do.

"The Fujido Estate…" Iena begins.

"Heh?" Tanjiro tilts his head.

She shakes her head and the topic away. "Nevermind." She bends and grabs the thick branch, a ghost smile lying on her lips. "This needs to be—" Iena feels that sinister aura again.

She makes an about-face and yes, it's Zenitsu emitting it again. Once more, she's clueless about why he releases a menacing aura. However, it's not directed at her but, similar to before, at Tanjiro. Tanjiro and Iena exchange looks then return their sight to Zenitsu.

"Agatsuma-kun?" Iena says, blinking innocently.

"There you go again Tanjiro, being a sick person…" His head dangles as he widens his stance.

Tanjiro takes a step back. "What? Why would you say that?"

"Because…" His voice rolls into a growl. "Because…!" He clenches fists and teeth. Iena, finally realizing what's about to happen next, quickly covers her ears. "Because...YOU WANT GODDESS-CHAN ALL TO YOURSELF!"

"…What?"

"LISTEN HERE YOU BIG BOULDER FOREHEAD! I DIDN'T COME ALONG JUST TO WATCH YOU FLIRT WITH GODDESS-CHAN! I COULD'VE CUT THAT TREE TOO! YOU HAD TO COME IN AND STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT!"

Zenitsu rushes to Tanjiro so fast, Iena jumps when the blond is suddenly in front of them. He grabs Tanjiro's collar and wrings it as if to strangle him.

"HAVE COMPASSION FOR ONCE! WHY MUST YOU RUIN MY CHANCE TO GET GIRLS! FIRST NEZUKO-CHAN NOW GODDESS-CHAN! DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF MY YOUTH!"

"Agatsuma-kun," Iena interrupts his flailing acrimony.

He freezes and turns his head to the girl. During his ear bleeding rant, Iena presents the tree branch to him, figuring he's causing a ruckus because of not having a chance to cut the bush, an immature reason to be upset. She won't allow him to cut the bush now, but she needs the branch to be cut into small pieces for it to fit in her basket. That will also speed up the required process of creating medicine since she won't have to cut them herself.

"The branch needs to go into the basket. Can you cut it up for me?"

Zenitsu is still for too long to the point Iena slowly brings the branch down, in thought of taking back her offer. He bursts a reply, gripping the branch and nodding fervently. "Of course, I'll do it, Goddess-chan!"

Iena nods and hands him the branch. The blonde takes it, eager to find a spot to do the task.

While all this is going on, Inosuke looks at them, a scowl on his face and a pouty cross of his arms. No one asked him to cut anything. He's been sitting on the sidelines watching everyone have their fun. He can slice and dice better than all three of those goons combined.

He grips his swords and unsheathes it. He'll show them his skill. They'll be groveling in their regrets of not asking him to cut the branches.

"That's all you guys can do?" Inosuke taunts. The other teens look at him.

"What's he talking about?" Zenitsu grimaces. Tanjiro and Iena shrugs.

"Watch this! PIG ASSAULT!" Inosuke sprints for the bush, swords raised for some good old fashion slicing.

Iena's intuition flashes red. "Hashibira-kun, wait!"

"Inosuke, stop!" Tanjiro shouts.

He's already at the bush. His swords move in a meticulous fashion.

Iena sees the bush standing tall. One dreaded blink after, the bush is obliterated into small, splint-like pieces. It's as if the bush imploded.

Iena has no pupils in her eyes. Her face is ghost white and she nearly crumbles to the ground. Tanjiro's jaw drops, and Zenitsu's stiff as a pole.

Inosuke sheathes his swords with a triumphant smirk. He swiftly turns to everyone else. The want for them to admire his skills is so much he can't wipe the smirk he has. It's too gleeful to be a smirk. It's an award-winning smile. "See? I can cut through anything!" He boasts and strikes a pose.

Not one response. Inosuke furrows his brows. "Guys?"

Iena really wants to cry so badly, but she won't cry in front of them. The tree peony bush she's been growing for months, gone, non-existent in a blink of an eye. Since fall, traveling the mountain, periodic checks on this wondrous plant; her efforts keep piling up the more she thinks about it.

"Hey, what's wrong with you guys?" Inosuke huffs.

The boy watches Iena trudge to the bush, a horrified look on her face. She crumbles, not on her knees, but to the ground below.

Stare. She just stares at the splintered pieces scattered on the ground, the jarring death of her tree peony bush not completely registering yet.

Tanjiro and Zenitsu watch from afar, shocked that the girl's not her knees, but on the ground still as an aging log.

"I know Inosuke did something awful, but she's gonna dirty her clothes if she stays on the ground for that long," Tanjiro says with an empathetic frown.

"I don't think she cares at the moment, Tanjiro," Zenitsu counters, not losing one second in eyeing the girl's strange position.

Inosuke narrows his eyes, of course, not pleased by Iena's reaction to his expert slicing. He meets her eyes as she finally sits up and lands in a cross-legged position, a meditation position of sorts. "What's with that face, Bukiro? I cut the tree for you!"

No reply.

Inosuke scowls and closes the distance between them until his left ankle is centimeters away from her right knee. "Oi, Jinjoro!"

With intense grit in her teeth, she forms a fist and brings it down on Inosuke's left foot like a steel hammer.

Inosuke feels the pain of a thousand needles paralyze his foot as he jolts and lets out a big, "OUCH!"

Iena gasps and finally snaps out of her flashing red daze. Being that Inosuke is hopping around and shouting about his foot, she realizes what she has done.

She abandons her meditative position and climbs to her feet, her hands in the air like she wants to help him but doesn't know how.

"H-Hashibira-kun, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—"

"You're definitely trying to pick a fight now!" He accuses, a finger jabbed at her. Iena shakes her head, regret all over her face.

"No! It's just," Iena averts her eyes, rubbing her neck a little, "when I get really angry, I lash out and hit the closest thing near me." She sucks in her lips. "And the closest thing was your foot, but I'm trying to stop!"

Tanjiro has a flashback to the first night when him and Zenitsu got tossed.

Iena was angry. Him and Zenitsu were the closest to her.

"I understand now…" Tanjiro mumbles.

Zenitsu makes a vow to stay right where he is while Tanjiro looks on in unease as Iena tries to placate Inosuke.

Both of them, in great unison, will remember this fact.

* * *

Iena felt bad about what she did, especially since Inosuke did what he did with good intentions behind it.

Iena apologized profusely, which the boy was forced to accept by Tanjiro and Zenitsu. As an offer, she proposed to cook Inosuke's favorite food.

When they're done collecting a long list of herbs needed, they journey to the market at the fierce center of Kawagoe in the Saitama Prefecture, the heat in the social sparks of the city.

Once, the smells of the city were alien to Iena and their chaotic fragrance set her on edge even when she came with Komi. There was no tinge of earthy loam to the air, unlike home, no fragrance of spring growth or heady warning when rain was due. But, her senses now are in tune with the place.

The words from chatty people underpin everything, but punching right out of it will be the spicy offerings of the street vendors, coming sharply into focus then ebbing away again; only to be replaced by the next vendor and the next. Now, these are the smells of home every bit as much as the old ones are, perhaps less healthy but reassuring nonetheless.

As they walk around the maze of people, Tanjiro starts to gurgle and his eyes dart uncomfortably fast at each pattern of the streets.

"Hey, what's wrong, Tanjiro? Are you okay?" Zenitsu asks.

Zenitsu is right. Tanjiro looks disoriented and anxious. "I'm fine, Zenitsu. It—"

"You're not used to places like this, are you?" Iena asks. It's more of a definitive statement than it is a question.

Tanjiro nods meekly. "It's not as bad as Tokyo, but it still makes me uneasy," He states with a frown. His face is so dizzy, a small chuckle escapes her lips to the surprise of all three boys. Did she laugh on her own because of them?

"I'm sorry Kamado-kun. We'll leave once we buy the fish." She doesn't mean to laugh at the boy's pain, but his face full of unease is so dramatic and interesting, that sneaky chuckle slipped out her mouth

Inosuke likes fish, an easy choice for her to make any recipe she wants. Iena decides to cook *_nanban-zuke_. It bewilders her that she's willingly cooking for a demon slayer, one that obliterated her tree peony bush no less. Yet…

She glances at the three. Tanjiro looks ready to pass out, Zenitsu moves his head around, captivated by the city (she's not missing his wandering eyes on certain females), and Inosuke is clearly lured by the amount of food crowding his every direction.

She should be scolding herself. Actually liking the company of demon slayers, not minding their insufferable attitudes—it goes against what she has known and believed to be the truth for so long, it goes against the judgment she thought as a permanent law. Her past deemed it so.

That nagging humane instinct that likes to remind her she can't loathe the people who keep nights from being shrouds of malevolent darkness ready to prey on unsuspecting people. You can't show hostility to people who save you from demons. But, a person who saves lives doesn't necessarily have to be righteous.

There's something about these three that she can't name, but what she can name is what she wants in her life. People that she can have fun with, despite their flaws.

Friends.

Iena wipes that word out her mind.

"Let's get the fish already! I'm starving!" Inosuke's yell whips her out her thoughts.

She glares at him. "If you're going to behave like that, we can just turn around."

"No! C'mon you said you'll make fish!"

"We're in the city. You have to calm down and wait!"

"But I can't wait!"

"Alright, then let's go back."

"No! Ugh! Fine!" Inosuke kisses his teeth.

_Mother and son...?_ Tanjiro and Zenitsu's thoughts can't help but chorus.

They walk along the footpaths, destination set on the seafood stall, which is next to the noodle spot. Once they arrive, the shop owner, Masagi Tonka, notices Iena. His black moustache with gray threads rustles from the joy he has upon seeing the girl. His sweat is of the sea and fishy smells, but he's a friendly old man with a giving heart. With a sincere wife and his soon-to-be title of grandfather, he's usually merry without any thought.

His smile can't remain small. A big laugh out his big mouth, he greets her. "Who's this beautiful lady in front of me? This can't be Iena-chan, can it?"

"Hi, Tonka-san," She greets in return with a grand smile, something that throws all three of the boys off.

"I swear, each year you grow up to be an even more beautiful lady."

"Thank you, Tonka-san. How's Toshio-san and his wife?"

"They're great, they're great! Noriko is ready to pop any day and once that day comes I can finally see my grandson!"

From the weeks they've been at the Fujido household, the most Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke ever gotten from this girl was a weak smile. Now she's here conversing with the old man with random enthusiasm, they wonder if Iena has been hit in the head while they weren't looking.

Tonka spots the boys behind her. "Your beauty shines bright! Three suitors, my word?!"

Iena gasps. "What!? No! They're-" friends, "-helpers. They helped me collect herbs today."

Zenitsu raises one hand high, higher than the awning shading the place. "I'm a suitor!" He announces loud and proud.

Iena pales. "Agatsuma-kun, please cut it out."

Tonka laughs again as if it's all he knows how to do. "No need to be shy, Iena-chan! I know you'll have a fun future ahead of you!"

"Money. Fish. Please." Iena shoves the money in his hand **because if he talks any longer she actually will die on the spot.**

Tonka takes the money and chuckles at how hopeless Iena's response is. "What type?"

"Horse mackerel."

Inosuke watches them and finds the word strange. He turns to Tanjiro and asks, "What's a suitor?"

Tanjiro so painfully laughs off his question.

While busy preparing the fish, Tonka continues to talk. "How's Komi? She's well?"

Iena pauses then quickly proceeds. "She's fine. The doctor recently came to the house and examined her. He said her lungs are getting a little better although there's still some wheezing."

Tanjiro listens to this and recalls his first meeting with Komi. He remembers her having these sickly coughs, an unordinary occurrence for a woman so young. She's pale and while she has the mirth to keep her personality alive, what does she have to keep her body well?

"I say it's because of your smarts, Iena-chan. You're always making some miracle medicine and giving it to the sick, why," He sharpens his main knife effortlessly, "ya don't study with doctors is beyond this old man."

"I'm not ready for something like that. I can't live up to those expectations. While I do study the human body, I mainly study it to see which medicinal formula will work the best."

"Doctors help the sick. You do too. You made medicine for my wife's sores, helped Amegami-san with his fever. That's amazing work in my eyes."

Iena blushes at the praise. It's weird to her. She never distributed her medicines for recognition. She mainly wanted to see if what she had could heal people, and if it didn't, then it's definitely an error on her part, mistakes that cannot be made if she holds the occupation of doctor.

It's not an elaborate reason or anything. She just doesn't like to see people sick and that conviction stemmed from Komi's state.

Tonka slices the horse mackerel in a neat and clean fashion, but he doesn't give it to her. He holds it hostage and says to the guys with an amicable grin, "Haven't seen faces like yours around."

"This is our first time here," Tanjiro answers. It seems like he was able to resurface from his disoriented state.

But then, his face turns sour and his eyebrows slam together. "In this city, where there are many buildings and people and the streets…" Nevermind, he's still in that state.

Tonka chuckles. "Not a city person, I take it?" Tanjiro shakes his head no.

The man faces Iena once more. "Why don't you show them around for a bit, Iena-chan? Help your friends get used to the settings?"

Is Tonka suggesting for her to tour with them? Iena juts her bottom lip out, not really too keen on the idea. She wasn't planning on staying out for too long. Even them coming to the city was an impromptu action.

"Tonka-san, I don't—"

He interrupts her. "Iena-chan, there's no harm, right? The sun shines nice above Kawagoe. It's a good day for enjoyment."

She flattens her lip and keeps her eyes on everything else except Tonka. But he probably already caught her eyes flicker contradictions.

"I'll keep your mackerel safe and fishy in the back." He jerks his thumb behind him, a direct lead to the storage. "Go have fun with your friends."

Friends.

Iena peers at Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke behind her shoulders. They stand, loyal, waiting for her to be done so they can all leave together.

She moves her head, stares at Tonka. "Go." He whispers as if that word alone had a lifetime of wisdom.

Iena momentarily can't summon any words to say to Tonka after that soft whisper. It's as if her tongue turned to stone.

Because of that, she unstraps the woven basket on her back. She grips the basket full of herbs and her machete. After a while of gazing at the basket, with precise, purposeful movements, Iena hands the basket to Tonka.

Tonka nods, cheery and hopeful.

She backs away and turns to the three demon slayers.

"Let's go," She commands with shaky finality.

"What about your basket?" Tanjiro questions.

"What about the fish?" Inosuke protests and points to the seafood stand.

In response, Tonka shoos them away as if warding off a flock of greedy birds and he laughs warmly all the while. "Don't worry about some lousy fish. You'll get it later."

Zenitsu walks beside Iena, one final glimpse at Tonka before he speaks. "Get it later?" He looks at Iena. "Are we going somewhere, Goddess-chan?"

"We're going everywhere."

* * *

Candy.

An alley of candy.

Along one smooth long street of Kawagoe city lies confectionaries and snack shops lined on both sides of the streets and the sweet relics of dessert and candies sitting in patterned rows. In the strong afternoon light, the shops look pretty and glossy just like the candies and snacks they showcase.

The pace of city living is calmer on this street, though there are still good amounts of people congesting the streets.

Candy Alley is what the citizens of Kawagoe label it. An area in development, a toe in the water idea that gained a lot of popularity throughout the years. A kind of place that everyone can admire, sweet tooth or not.

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke are definitely awestruck.

Iena takes a look at each of their reactions. Inosuke is fascinated, whipping his head in every direction to see all confectionaries available. Zenitsu's reaction isn't as grand, but he still admires the area. Tanjiro is captivated, his mouth slightly open and drawing in the sweet aroma of candy.

"Where are we?" Tanjiro is the first to ask.

"It's called Candy Alley." Iena presents. "It's a spot where people like to buy sweets and deserts."

Tanjiro smiles. Iena sees that he feels a little better as this place is calmer than the regular city streets.

"Why are we here then?" Tanjiro follows up with another question.

Iena stops and so do Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.

She wiggles her fingers, then tilts her head. "I feel for some *_kakigori_."

Which is true. She's been craving the treat for a couple of days now and since they're here, she might as well indulge.

They might as well too.

"_Kakigori_?" Tanjiro asks. He turns to Zenitsu for his experience, but Zenitsu is just as clueless. Inosuke, by default, knows absolutely nothing about the treat.

Iena moves in front of them and spreads her arms wide like somebody who threw heaps of confetti. "This is the place for it then."

After her grandiose fling of the arms, she leads the way and they hurry behind her.

Iena takes them to a shack, well-built and colorful. They don't wait too long for them to order, but since the guys have no knowledge of the treat, Iena has a feeling that this will take a while.

The four teens scan the menu made from paper and inky kanji.

"What exactly is _kakigori_, Goddess-chan?" Zenitsu leans towards Iena, no funny antics, just downright curiosity.

"Shaved ice," She answers.

"Ice?!" The guys chorus, triple expressions of shock. Iena and undoubtedly the middle-aged woman at the stand tending to them give them strange looks from their sudden outburst. Iena opens her mouth at their random unified cries.

"Why?" Is all she asks,

"I didn't know you could eat ice too!" Tanjiro exclaims as if this marked a crucial point of his life.

"My teeth are going to fall out if I eat that, I know it!" Zenitsu shudders as he scoots away from the stand with zero subtlety.

"That means…" A full force of Inosuke's special steam pumps out of his nose. "You have an icehouse, don't you?" He raises an accusatory finger at the poor middle-aged woman who's more than alarmed at the moment if one could make a good interpretation from her face alone.

Iena feels she should've expected this reaction since they've never seen or heard of the treat. She guesses their response is appropriate—well Tanjiro's and Zenitsu's response.

Iena frowns, a little bothered. "You guys don't want it?"

The three fall silent, arms straight, lips tight and all six eyes on her: red, yellow, blue.

She stares right back so innocently. Not one of them speaks.

"Um…" The woman attempts to break the silence.

"Four _kakigori_, please," Iena tells the shopkeeper, who's caught quite off guard by the sudden spike in volume from Iena's voice.

"Y-Yes." With the situation back to normal, the woman regains herself. "Which flavor would you like?"

Iena mulls it over. "Green tea, please!"

The woman takes note of it. "What about your friends?"

There's that word again.

With a tense cursory glance at the guys, she tries not to feel unease in such an innocent word and eventually regards them. "Which flavor do you guys want?"

Tanjiro scans the menu once more, maybe a bit skittish, but he appears to be happy about trying something new. Firm in his decision, he says with determination. "Sweet Plum, please!"

Zenitsu's sentiment is similar to Tanjiro's, but once he sees Iena, his sweet Goddess-chan, look at him with worry, he doesn't delay his decision. "Melon, please!"

It's Inosuke's turn. However, the boar seems troubled. He looks at the menu, not moving and rather slumped. From where she's standing, she can hear his gravelly voice, confused and anxious. Iena leans down past Tanjiro and Zenitsu to get a better view of a lost Inosuke.

Does he not know what he wants? Iena thinks. However, the more she analyzes him as he finally moves his head closer to the black kanji on the menu, she recognizes the problem.

Tanjiro beats her to it. "Inosuke can't read the menu."

"Oh yeah, he's illiterate," Zenitsu remembers in an actually understanding tone towards Inosuke.

Iena doesn't remember moving at all, and if she still had the mindset from weeks ago, she would've ignored the situation and let them figure it out themselves.

No, they would never be here in the first place.

She squeezes between Zenitsu and Inosuke. Then, using her index finger as a teaching tool, she points at each kanji and hiragana spread out on the sheet of paper.

"This kanji with the syllable _ko_ means red bean. This syllable _ko_ is hiragana." She runs her finger and Inosuke faithfully follows. She stops. "This is the kanji for green tea, and this one is lemon. Those blocky syllables are katakana. We use katakana for the word lemon: _re-mo-n_."

Iena reads to him all the flavors, even the side selections that may have been pointless, but she does it anyway. Inosuke looks amazed by the variety of flavors, Iena chuckles a little at his enthusiasm.

Inosuke, in excitement, asks, "Is there fish flavor?"

In the end, Iena orders strawberry for him.

When they receive their orders and the lady shells out a hospitable 'Enjoy', the four teens examine their treats. Mountains of fine ice with their chosen flavors coiled inside and out. Sweet condensed milk covers the bottom and there is a layer of sweetness on the ice.

All of them grip their spoons tight.

Zenitsu gulps. "Here goes."

They all, in perfect timing, spoon their _kakigori_ and put the treat in their mouth.

Inosuke almost spills his shaved ice with how much he bounces like a child playing with a ball. His boar head mask sways atop of his head as he stuffs the cold, sweet treat in his pretty, girly mouth.

"This is great! It makes me want to eat ice all the time!"

Iena hopes that's not a forewarning of Inosuke attempting to have her open the icehouse more often.

The level of shaved ice in his cup diminishes to nothing before Iena can even eat half of hers.

"This is delicious! I didn't know ice could taste so good!" Tanjiro agrees with Inosuke, smiling from ear to ear. He digs in another spoonful and eats it with gusto. "Thank you so much, Fujido-san!"

"Goddess-chan~!" Iena was wondering when Zenitsu was going to start. "Giving us something so yummy, Goddess-chan really is the best!"

He twirls and twirls around, miraculously still having his treat steady in his hand.

Flowers cascade down on Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.

Alstroemeria: _Friendship, Devotion_

Cape Jasmine: _Happiness_

Chrysanthemum: _Cheerful, Friendship_

Freesia: _Friendship, Trust_

Iena eyes widen at the constant downpour of flowers. Most of these flowers are related to friendship.

It comes back to that word. It keeps entering her mind.

Friends.

Something loosens in Iena's face. No matter how much she tries keeping her mouth contained with as much effort she can muster, it doesn't work. She sucks in her lips, but it doesn't help. She tries to fight it but it proves impossible, and the concrete finally breaks.

And the best, truest smile is finally free. "You're welcome."

They continue to enjoy their sweet treats smiling together, but the flowers float away when Inosuke freezes.

His face twitches and his lips quiver. His hands scramble to shield his face with his boar mask, but the three other teens already saw his odd behavior and his uncomfortable face.

"What's wrong, Inosuke?" Tanjiro asks while wiping his mouth with the napkins the shopkeeper gave them.

His reply is a loud, ferocious scream nearly surpassing Zenitsu's levels of screams. Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Iena halt their pleasant snacking, eyes popped wide open. It also attracts the attention of onlookers, a high tide of whispers and poorly disguised laughter surrounding them. But, the teens could care less about that.

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro frets, instantly by his friend's side.

Inosuke grips his head with one hand, his empty _kakigori_ cup clutched fiercely in the other. Iena and Zenitsu crowd around the boar in urgency, or more likely to prevent him from dropping into a fetal position.

"My head!" His deep voice cries out into the distance. "My head! It's like I can't feel it." His voice comes out grated and full of nothing but pain.

At the present predicament, Zenitsu switches from his shaved ice to Inosuke, one side to the next.

Shaved ice, Inosuke, Shaved ice, Inosuke, Inosuke, oh, man, freaking Inosuke—

"Are you sure we can still eat this?!' Zenitsu shrieks. He creates an arm-length distance from him and his _kakigori_, mainly because that's how far he can go with the dangerous treat and rather not make a mess like an insensitive child.

"Of course, you can still eat it!" Iena reassures. However, she doesn't sound too sure herself and that small indication of uncertainty gives Zenitsu so many rights to freak out all over the place. "Well, it never happened to me."

Amidst all the chaos of freak outs, the woman at the _kakigori_ stand laughs loud and hard like a comical performance came to entertain her alone. Iena overhears it despite their proximity—the other side of the street parallel to the _kakigori_ shop—and the amused chatter of the people around them. After the long fit of laughter, she beckons Iena over. The girl hastily goes with Tanjiro shouldering an injured Inosuke and Zenitsu trembling in tow.

Before Iena can say anything, the shopkeeper chuckles once more. "Weird bunch of kids you are."

"What did you give us?! You think this is funny?! This is messed up!" Zenitsu slams his cup on the stand's counter and slides it towards the shopkeeper.

"There's nothing wrong with it," she emphasizes. She leans forward, elbows propped on the wooden counter. "Your pig friend there ate too much ice at once."

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Iena look at Inosuke simultaneously, the guy still slacked on Tanjiro's shoulder in utter pain.

"That's why?" Iena considers.

"Yes. It happens all the time." The shopkeeper shrugs. "Someone gets the shaved ice, eats it too fast and screams out as if they're being stabbed or something. When that happens, we say "*_Yuki-onna_ kissed your head goodnight."

Hearing those words, Zenitisu scowls. "So, it's because you were being greedy." He glares at Inosuke, who still remains in a droopy state. Inosuke tries to mumble a threat, but he's too knocked out by the tricks of _Yuki-onna_ to keep it up.

"Oh, I get it now." Iena nods. Good thing she's a slow eater, a habit that Komi mocks her about funnily. Now this habit has some good use. She'll make sure that never happens to her. She has no desire to face _Yuki-onna_ if the woman is going to freeze her head.

"Now we know better." Tanjiro nods and gives credence to her explanation. "Who knew such a powerful spirit lived in ice."

"Do you guys hear yourself? That phrase sounds like a blatant lie," Zenitsu mutters, but they disregard him, thanking the woman for her very verifiable and accurate explanation of why Inosuke's head basically imploded. They head off.

"What?! Wait!" Zenitsu grabs his treat and rushes after them.

* * *

They went everywhere.

Most of what Kawagoe offered, they went.

After _Yuki-onna's_ curse left Inosuke's head, they went to Kitain Temple, a very revered temple amongst the Kawagoe citizens, primarily because it was reconstructed by the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, who took sections of the Edo Castle to reform it.

They saw the buildings of the Edo Castle, fresh and still alive despite surviving three centuries. They roamed the 500 Rakan, the Buddhist statues, mimicking the few faces the statues had, Tanjiro surprisingly being the one to have the best mimicry.

Next, they toured to the clock tower, a major landmark in Kawagoe rebuilt because of the Kawagoe fire incident back in 1894. The teens waited seven minutes for the bell to chime and once it did, they couldn't help but hum and cheer at the soothing, melodic ring of the bell.

Yakushi Shrine wasn't too far from the clock tower, an easy spot for them to stop at. However, they couldn't stay and pray for too long since Inosuke kept pulling the string to ring the bell and they really didn't need a mob on their tail.

They went to more and more places, it was so much fun, Iena nearly forgot to retrieve the fish and her basket from Tonka.

She stopped to chat a little with Tonka and his wife Asai, a florist who makes extra money for their family by selling flowers, and the four teens told the butcher and his wife about everything they did today.

Thanks to the outing, it was one of the few times she was able to appreciate Kawagoe's build. The way the city drew all of them in, Iena realized she took the allure of Kawagoe for granted.

It was beneficial for Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke too.

She could tell, with how much they were having fun, it was sort of a catharsis for them, maybe from all the stress they endured from fighting most of the time. It was a cultural shock for them as well, seeing all the specialties they were oblivious to for most of their life.

She can't deny it at all. This was an incredible day.

By nightfall, they are back at the estate and greeted by Komi and Nana. While Iena is cooking dinner, the boys tell Komi and Nana the places they went to and the different sights they saw, which amused the two women. Iena didn't reject Tonka's suggestion of touring with the boys.

"She really warmed up to them," Komi comments to Nana.

Nana nods while observing the three boys interact with their usual ruckus. "Maybe she understands now," Nana remarks underneath her breath.

"What was that, Nana?" Komi turns her head to read the old woman's face.

"I was wondering if Iena needs help in the kitchen," Nana responds.

Iena comes from the kitchen and serves the *_nanban-zuke_ and a feast comes with it: simmered squash, *_tempura, *inari sushi_, pickled radish, *_kinoko tamago_, shredded cabbage and white rice.

Everyone looks at the food stunned. They were anticipating the food, but they didn't know Iena would cook up a feast. It's almost an endless procession of plates.

"You made all this, Fujido-san?!" Tanjiro asks in wonder. The delicious smells are messing with his brain, his mouth involuntarily waters.

"I was the only one in the kitchen. Who else could've made it?" Iena brandishes a kettle of barley tea.

"Woah!" Inosuke's eyes shine brighter and brighter at every dish in front of him. "Look at all the food! I can't wait, let's eat!"

The food tastes as good as it appears. It satisfies everyone at the table, chunks of delectable fish, hearty slurps of soup, and crunch layered words from the tempura. Iena smiles at everyone's enjoyment over her food.

She was unsure if the boys would like her cooking, but Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke are lost between flavors and heaven. Inosuke gladly shows it with him scarfing down his food with no remorse. To add to that, he's not using chopsticks.

"Didn't we tell you before to use chopsticks when you eat," Zenitsu scolds.

"Yes, and I chose not to listen, now shut up and let me eat." Inosuke stuffs some _inari sushi_ in his mouth.

"Agatsuma-kun is right. Use your chopsticks," Iena agrees. She hasn't said anything to him before because, to be blunt, she honestly didn't care. But now, after watching his sloppy eating with the food she's made, well, she's somewhat bothered.

"Huh? Are you going to start now?" Inosuke groans.

"Use. Your chopsticks."

Like before, with the glimpse of her face before she snapped out of her daze, Iena looks at him with a face free from any expression. He can't call it a blank stare. It's worse than that. Her face is too still and creepy, it's kind of freaky.

Inosuke and Iena continue their staring contest until Inosuke drops the _inari sushi_ he's holding and picks up the chopsticks.

Komi nearly chokes on a squash from laughter.

"Eh!?" Tanjiro and Zenitsu yell. _They really are like mother and son!_

Inosuke grunts and soon enough grinds his teeth as his frustration echoes around the dinner table. "How do you even hold these things?!"

"Like this Inosuke!" Tanjiro raises his chopstick hand triumphantly. "You put your right hand around the chopsticks like this. After that, you hold the upper chopstick like this and put this finger holding it with your thumb—"

Inosuke isn't the only one confused by Tanjiro's explanation. Everyone at the table has a face similar to Iena when Atsuri tries to explain business practices to her without her brain bleeding out.

"You're terrible," Iena begins with a face full of pity and pain. "You're a terrible teacher."

"Goddess-chan is right, Tanjiro. You stink at teaching," Zenitsu agrees with cringe.

"What? I'm trying my best," Tanjiro counters, actually wounded by their comments.

Komi and Nana enjoy every bit of this. The teens are their own performance and are unaware of their own interactions being a grand show to the two. With food to eat, it might as well be.

Most of dinner is Tanjiro and Zenitsu bickering about how much Tanjiro is horrible at teaching and how Nezuko has such a useless older brother while Iena attempts to teach Inosuke how to use chopsticks, refusing to let him eat if the guy tries to grab food with his hand.

Komi regards them with an affectionate smile, but can't stop as she and Nana laugh and laugh into their food until their bodies are weak.

* * *

Once dinner concludes, Iena goes to take a bath before she visits their room.

One gentle slide of the _shoji_ and she sees Tanjiro telling Nezuko stories of what happened today. Zenitsu and Inosuke accompany him by reenacting certain events and places they went to. Similar to dinner, they tell her all about everything, from the candy alley to the clock tower to the breath-taken temples. They don't leave any detail behind. Nezuko listens with rapt attention. She enjoys every second, every word, every action they provide, all the features on her face, albeit her mouth, speaks happiness.

Iena smiles at the scene. It looks comical but simultaneously refreshing. If only Nezuko was allowed to walk in the day, underneath the sun and see her own view instead of her brother's. Iena bets her smile would rival the sun itself.

The first one to notice her is Zenitsu, who gladly romanticizes his greeting. "Goddess-chan, chan, chan!" He skips to her with all the prance of a theater dancer. "Dinner was so good! Please cook for me for the rest of my life!"

He launches into an exaggerated wiggling of his body. Iena giggles. "Thank you, Agatsuma-kun. I'm glad you liked it!"

Sincerity draws Tanjiro's attention. The girl really sounds sincere in what she said. He can definitely smell it. It's the opposite of what he smelled a week ago. Hurt, Sorrow. Upset.

But now: Nice. Happy. Sincere

It lights a smile on Tanjiro's face and creates a warmth in his soul knowing that her eyes finally don't have contempt when she looks at them, but cheer and friendliness.

Friends.

Nezuko runs past him, undoubtedly to Iena. She throws herself into Iena's arms and brings her into one cuddly hug.

"Hi, Nezuko," Iena greets, rubbing her head with some soft pats mixed in.

"MMgghh." Nezuko's soft sound echoes in Iena's ears. A fuzziness, like many times before, tickles her chest like strokes of a paintbrush. It strokes and streaks all around her chest, not a part of it left untouched. It paints and paints until the picture is clear and perfect for her to feel.

"Friends," She whispers into Nezuko's hair.

What a revelation for her to have her eyes closed, to bring Nezuko closer and relish in what her heart always wanted.

Iena joins Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke in their performance for Nezuko of what they did today. If someone were to see them, they'll probably look like a bunch of weirdos entertaining a fair maiden. But Iena guesses when you're with friends, there's no such thing as appearances.

"—When we ate the ice, Inosuke was like," Zenitsu holds his head and starts to choke and gag in such an exaggerated manner, one would think he'd keel over and die any moment. He makes a sound similar to a scalded cat, "my head! My head! I can't feel my head!"

Tanjiro and Iena laugh freely at this. It's hard not to laugh at Zenitsu's ridiculous portrayal of Inosuke's ice incident. Nezuko closes her eyes, lifts well-manicured eyebrows up as a sign for sheer hilarity. It baits Zenitsu to act even more of a loon.

Iena guesses Inosuke didn't like them laughing at his expense by the way he's steaming in his spot. Veins protruding from his hands, those big, rocky hands are ready to wreak havoc on Zenitsu's face.

The boar hops to his feet and clenches his fists. "I didn't do that!" He shouts.

"What?! Yes, you did!" Zenitsu shouts back.

"I didn't do it like that!"

"Yes, you did," Tanjiro and Iena affirm together from their respective spots on Tanjiro's *_futon_.

"Hah! Three against one!" Zenitsu taunts with a dirty smirk. He snickers, his dirty smirk shaped like a crescent moon

Maybe Iena should warn Zenitsu about Inosuke since she sees him nabbing Zenitsu's own pillow, but she'd like to see what exactly is he going to do with that pillow.

And he does exactly what she expects.

Inosuke throws the pillow at Zenitsu's face and the pillow beats his face in like a spoon. Struck by his own pillow, Zenitsu falls to the floor on his back with a clunky thump. Tanjiro and Nezuko share shocked expressions while Iena winces at that very loud impact.

Maniacal guttural cackles from - seriously who else, takes over the room and everyone's ears. Inosuke, with his bombastic self, points his finger down to Zenitsu's smothered face and mercilessly mocks him. To him, it was a great decision to shut Zenitsu up.

However, someone in the room thinks the opposite.

The moment Inosuke is inattentive, a pillow smacks the side of his face with a satisfying whump. Similar to Zenitsu, it knocks him to the floor, left cheek flat on the *_tatami_. Definitely aware now, **because who dares try to challenge the Great Inosuke**, he fumes, "Who threw that?!"

Silence.

It seems the culprit has long black hair that flows into a rich vermillion, a pink ribbon, a pink kimono with a black *_haori_ over it. Currently, the culprit hides behind the backs of two people, a burgundy boy and a wisteria heiress, like a defenseless turtle.

"Yay! Nezuko-chan!" Zenitsu rises from his pillowy death and squeals, "Nezuko-chan saved me from that brute!"

"It was you?!" Inosuke yells, bewildered that such a meek and soft girl could commit such a crime. The boar, without a second thought, stocked himself with the pillow Nezuko threw.

"Come out! Quit hiding behind Kojiro and Tsukido!"

"Who?" Iena voices and it needs to be voiced. Not even the elderly butcher names as much as Inosuke does.

Beside her, Kamado Tanjiro's overprotective brother mode switches on. He grabs the pillow Inosuke threw at Zenitsu earlier and fires.

WHACK

Zenitsu bends over and clutches his stomach, his laughter killing his insides with every choking breath. "Attack of the Kamado siblings!"

The amount of steam leaving Inosuke's boar nostrils can power a whole village. "You finally decide to fight me now, Shinjiro!"

Some sort of battle is forming, Iena sees. A battle with pillows. All of them are armed and she has nothing to her name.

Iena sneaks away, far away from the group. They're already too caught up in their commotion to notice her take mini back steps. She creeps and creeps until her back hits part of the wall and rattles. She has reached her destination.

"Eh? Where's Fujido-san?" Tanjiro looks around.

"Goddess-chan?" Zenitsu is immediately aware.

Three pillows launch towards them.

WHACK

WHACK

WHACK

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke are all struck down one by one.

Nezuko looks in Iena's general direction and sees her by the closet, an open closest filled with rows of pillow ammo. There must be at least a dozen pillows stored in her arsenal.

Nezuko eyes widen, her pupils little pink marbles.

Iena nods. "Eventual self-defense." She then grins and arms herself with another pillow.

Everyone loses it.

Smacks and whacks and laughter are all the sounds in the room as everyone throws pillows at each other. Feet run up and down on the tatami as everyone chases others around the room. Iena decides not to implement too much of her dodging skills since she's pretty sure Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Nezuko can dodge just as quick and most likely quicker, but they're still allowing themselves to get hit by some of the pillows thrown at them.

All good-natured fun, she supposes.

Zenitsu guns mainly for Tanjiro and Inosuke, not to dare cross pillows with his 'Goddess-chan and Nezuko-chan~!' But after the many times Iena and Nezuko goad him by chucking pillow after pillow at him, he finally decides to at most throw some soft blows at the two.

Tanjiro is a counter-attacker. He'll catch pillows and throw them back in a matter of seconds. That's how he gets most of them, especially Inosuke, who becomes frustrated beyond belief.

Inosuke gets the most hits, gives chase to anyone with a pillow hollering 'Fight me!' He plays rough, but it's not bad as Iena would've expected and it's funny to see clouds of steam pump out his nose as he attacks everybody.

Nezuko isn't too far behind Inosuke with hit counts. She's a multi-attacker. The barrage of pillows she throws with two hands alone, it has to be some cheating demon power for sure.

Through it all, there's a burst in Iena's body and mind. It's a type of burst that carries more possibilities than she should be conscious of.

_Demon hunters._

_How?_

_They'll soon leave._

_This won't last forever._

Her happiness rots it all away. Right in this moment, she can't even remember what unhappy feels like.

Iena stops. Flowers blossom and appear like sunbeams to her eyes, but, it doesn't shower over Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Nezuko.

Chrysanthemum: _Cheerful, Friendship_

The flowers fall and tumble and roll on her. Some of her flowers scatter over to the four, dances around them as the four of them all laugh their stomach sore from the unexpected pillow fight, rehashing what just happened. Joy doesn't fade away from their faces.

The joy still stays as they all look at her.

They don't have to say anything.

Iena is already there to close the space, to complete the circle, and they all enjoy the night with golden chrysanthemums falling on all of their heads.

* * *

Iena wakes up in a semi-dark room.

Her vision is hazed by disjointed sleep and she taps her mind awake to function, work out her surroundings. It's good she can see well in the dark, so it makes her deductions a bit easier.

She's on a _futon_. She's definitely not in her room.

There are off-pitched snores piercing her ears. Definitely not in her room.

And she's sandwiched between two bodies, black and blond. Nezuko and Zenitsu.

She fell asleep in the boys' room.

They did stay up pretty late acting like idiots. She was surprised Komi didn't barge into the room and yelled at them to go to sleep. Guest privileges, Iena assumes.

Iena is the only one awake and opts to scan the room a bit more. Half of Inosuke's body isn't on his _futon_ and his arms are spread out like the wings of a bird preparing to take flight. His snores are slightly muffled by his mask. Shockingly, he's not too loud of a snorer.

To her left, Zenitsu sleeps on his stomach and has his face flat into his pillow, his back rising and falling. Only his feet and legs are covered by the blankets on his _futon_.

Iena switches to the right. Nezuko is there, sleeping, cuddled where Iena's chest would be if she lays back down. She must've snuggled in her chest.

With a sleepy smile, Iena pets Nezuko's hair.

For some unknown reason, it takes her for quite the loop when she hears snores coming from Tanjiro. She didn't find him the type to snore, but here she is listening to his nasally snores.

Newfound fact: Tanjiro snores like a stuffy old man.

He sleeps on his back, a peaceful look on his face, his whole body encased in his _futon_.

Except for one arm.

Iena follows his left arm and sees his hand on Nezuko's head, some fingers deep in her hair. The sight warms Iena's chest and makes her a little more coherent. From that one touch, she can tell how much he loves his sister and vice versa.

_But how is she a demon? Can demons and humans even…?_

Iena shoos her thoughts away and scolds herself to leave those thoughts alone.

Even through the closed opaque _shoji_ leading to the garden outside, she can tell it's sunrise. The light from the sun paints the _shoji_ a blurred yellowish tan and it slowly spreads the higher the sun rises.

If it wasn't for the shoji, Nezuko would've been in trouble.

Iena promptly shakes Nezuko.

"Nezuko," Iena whispers, fully awake.

She turns to lay on her back.

"Nezuko." Iena shakes the girl faster.

Nezuko slowly sits up. A tired sound emits from her mouth. "Mmgh..."

"I know, I know, you're tired," Iena says in a hurried but soothing tone. "But you have to go into the box. The sun is out."

Eyes still itchy with sleep, Nezuko nods weakly. Iena fixes Nezuko's disheveled black _haori _on her. Nezuko stumbles to a stand. Being that the young girl is still sleepy, Iena stands and guides her to the wooden box in the corner of the room. Iena opens the door for her and onwards, Nezuko knows what to do without sleep inhibiting her.

Nezuko gradually shrinks enough to fit in the box, but she doesn't leave without a tender pat on Iena's head.

"Sleep tight," Iena hums.

Nezuko crawls inside the box, and Iena shuts it gently.

With that done, Iena tiptoes to the door. If she wants to go on the hike, she has to get ready and leave right away. She can't wait for the guys and thanks to the way they're snoring their lives away, she's not too keen on waking them up. She also has to tell Komi about her trip too, and hopefully, Komi will allow her to go. She steps out the room quietly and slides the door shut just the same.

Iena scurries to her bathroom to do her morning routine. It's around nine when Iena travels to Komi's room and knocks on the door. Her aunt isn't the type to sleep in.

"Come in," Iena hears Komi say.

Iena enters the room and sees Komi combing her long black hair. It is a handcrafted comb made from the spine of a peach tree, lacquered with gold that climbs up and down the curve of the comb. The teeth are as small and spaced out like the tiny blades of grass in the garden.

"Good morning, Iena," Komi greets, swishing her hair over the shoulder to comb at the tips. "Did you enjoy your slumber party?"

Iena stands still. Of course, Komi would know.

"Iena, it's fine. I'm glad you had fun last night. I actually couldn't stop smiling when I heard you guys running around downstairs." She settles the comb on the dresser and gives Iena her full attention. "You've really warmed up to them. I'm so glad you found friends around your age."

Friends.

Iena just smiles and nods.

"Too bad they'll have to go soon."

The warmth in her chest starts to burn, stopping her cold, irony both hot and icy at once.

Komi is right. They can't stay for long. Once they're done healing, they're gone. The medicine and the ice therapy she's been giving them has been rejuvenating them quickly.

Words fail Iena. Komi notices the silence.

"What did you come up here for?" Komi breaks the silence. She crosses her arms with a pout. "If it's the medicine, then yes I took it."

"No, it's not that." Iena finds her words. "I'm going on a hike today."

"Oh…" Komi looks at her strangely. "Ok. What's so special about this one?"

"It's not Hokori Mountain."

Komi falls silent. She slowly uncrosses her arms and slides her hands to her hips. "Which mountain?"

"Well, yesterday Hashibira-kun ruined my tree peony so when I went back to get my stuff from Tonka-san, Asai-san was in the back and knowing that she knows about plants too, I asked her where I can find tree peony and she said—"

"Mountain," Komi interrupts impatiently.

"Natagumo."

* * *

_***Petal Falls***_

_Petal #19- Tanjiro is actually quite knowledgable on a few herbs Iena needed due to living in the mountains and also foraging for food during the Final Selection._

_Petal #20- Iena feels really bad about herself when she can't control her anger._

_Petal #21- Tonka knows about demon slayers. His son's wife used to be one._

_Petal #22- After hearing what Iena does with her medicine, the boys' respect for her increased tenfold._

_Petal #23- Inosuke isn't so thrilled about ice anymore. _

_Petal #24 - At the Yakushi Shrine, Iena prayed for Nana since the Kawagoe fire that destroyed the clock tower in 1894 is the one that Nana was in, leaving her with burn scars on her shoulders._

_Petal #25- While Nezuko is happy about the fun her brother and the others had in Kawagoe, she's also sad she couldn't experience it herself._

_Petal #26- If Iena stayed in the room just a little longer, she would've heard Tanjiro's thank you_

* * *

**_*Japanese Terms_**

**_*kampo - a Japanese variant of Chinese traditional medicine that involves the extensive use of herbs. It's a medical system organized based on the reactions of the human body to therapeutic interventions._**

**_*haori- traditional kimono styled jacket_**

**_*nanban-zuke: a Japanese fish recipe. The fish, usually horse mackerel and/or saurels, is fried and marinated vinegar with onion and carrots (basically escabeche. I eat escabeche style fish with my family all the time!)_**

**_*kakigori - Japanese shaved ice made with sweet condensed milk._**

**_*Yuki-onna- a snow spirit in folklore known for her beauty. She's regarded as the snow woman._**

**_*tempura - a Japanese dish of fish, shellfish, or vegetables, fried in batter._**

**_*inari sushi - deep-fried tofu 'pockets' filled with sushi rice._**

**_*kinoko tamago - a Japanese version of Chinese egg flower soup, but with shimeji, shiitake mushrooms, and spinach._**

**_*shoji - a Japanese sliding door_**

**_*futon - a Japanese quilted mattress rolled on the floor to use a a bed_**

**_*tatami - straw mat used as floor covering in a traditional Japanese home._**

* * *

**Hi, people. Hoped you enjoy this chapter, if you did, let me know. I'm so grateful of all the support I'm receiving. This really pushes me to post more chapters at a timely manner. So it seems things are about to go down next chapter, so hold on just a little longer for me lol._  
_**

**Stay tune folks!**

**NCT out.**


	5. Chapter 5: Bonds

**Chapter 5, you're alive.**

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge, or 'Alligator-sensei'**

**A/N: Sorry, I don't like putting these at the beginning, but I wanted to let everyone know two things:**

**1\. There's fan art of Iena! GODDESS-CHAN~! Go to my profile and see how you can witness the glorious art.**

**2\. Truth Wanders has a soundtrack! I post new songs every time a new chapter comes out. If you want to listen to what drives Mr. NCT and the emotions behind certain scenes, go check it out!**

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Bonds**_

* * *

**Best Beta Man: Zilver Hope**

_"Natagumo?"_

_"Yeah. Asai-san said there is less terrain to cover compared to Hokori so it's much easier to climb up."_

_"I see…"_

_"Komi-oba, can I go, please?!"_

_"How far is it from here?"_

_"Um…Asai-san said it takes two hours going, two hours coming back. That's if I ride the cart."_

_"That's four hours in total, and I don't know how long you'll take on the mountain."_

_"Komi-oba, please, pretty please?! I'll be fine! Just the mountain and back, I promise."_

_"Maybe I should ask Atsuri to take you in his car."_

_"…C-Car?"_

_"Wait…Damn, he told me his wife is sick. Not eating enough lately. Shit."_

_"Komi-oba, language."_

_"Yeah, yeah... I don't know, Iena. It's too far."_

_"Please, Komi-oba! I really need to regrow my tree peony bush. It's the base ingredient for most of my medicine. I also have to make more for you."_

_"Iena…"_

_"Please, oba?"_

_"...You have to leave now, then."_

_"Thank you, thank you, Komi-oba!"_

_"Promise me. Please, promise me you'll be back by sundown. You have to be back by sundown. Is that clear?"_

_"Yes! I promise!"_

* * *

Those blue eyes had watched the girl peter out to the road below. For an hour, those same blue eyes remained outside the polished and dressed window, staring at the gate half an hour more.

Komi's mouth is a thin, tense line. Her face sticks to the window. The sun is radiant, an all-watching eye, light creeping into every corner of her spacious room.

Still in her yukata nightgown, she's in a trance, still dreaming as if the conversation with her niece was a lucid dream.

The hug, the kiss on the cheek, and her farewell contradicted it.

Her eyes close briefly.

With heavy-lidded eyes, she commits to her decision to turn away from the window, from the gate Iena's lilac skirt swayed away from. Two hours to and two hours from added with a thirty-minute walk to the city added with an unpredictable wait time for the transportation cart to arrive. Who knows how long it'll take for her to find the plant, slice it up.

Komi provided her with enough money for the transportation cart and solely the carts. Iena wouldn't need to go anywhere else.

Komi inhales, breathing in her worry, her creeping concern, the overprotection that wants to cloud her eyes entirely. On the exhale, she grounds the worry between her teeth.

"Komi-sama, Iena will be fine."

From the door, Nana reveals half of herself, face calm like a steady lake. She sends Komi a wrinkled smile. Komi returns it, but the smile is devoid of her usual teasing bite.

"Good morning, Nana," she greets.

"Good morning, Komi-sama." Nana pulls her body completely inside the room. She then bows.

Nana can see an overflow of uneasiness running from Komi's face. It's a wonder Iena hadn't spotted it before she left. Komi did differentiate when and when not to show Iena her true emotions. She already worries the girl enough with her sickness.

Komi scratches the side of her head, then her hands veer from scratching to running.

"Why did you let her go if this would worry you so?"

Komi is a little appalled at herself that she can't manage to give Nana a clear-cut answer. Her hands grip loose on her head. Once it's loose, she gathers all her memories and brings them to the forefront. She swings through each memory, all the recollections of her stored memories exclusive to Iena, every behavior, every decision.

"Sheltered," Komi answers. She drops her hand from her head. "She's sheltered."

Nana stands still. The simple is voiced as an accusation to not Iena, but to Komi herself. Komi grimaces. "She's always been sheltered, and I made it worse."

It's hard to admit, but Komi, while she built Iena's independence, she kept her a shut-in. She's been shaping her to be the leading matriarch of the estate, but kept her stuck inside the manor. She's never been to the Gobe company's building, only been to Ginza once, and only goes to the city for errands and a brief visit to Tonka and his family. Nana performs the majority of tasks when it comes to city travel. It's a reason why Komi was shocked when Iena told her she listened to Tonka and explored the whole of Kawagoe city with the boys.

At most, she walks around the neighborhood, primarily with gifts of medicine and goodwill. The girl's world is nothing but herbs and wisteria trees. Even now, her trip is for the sake of herbs.

But, Komi still doesn't want to deny a place Iena willingly wants to go to.

"It was a good idea to let her go, yes?" Komi asks. Her question is a shallow leap from begging.

"Yes. Iena will be sixteen in, why, a matter of weeks! She's not getting any younger, Komi-sama." Nana's footsteps, swift and gentle, barely vibrates through the wooden floor when she walks across it and stands by Komi's side. Nana pats her back.

Nana is right, but the girl has seen so much bad, a lot of bad. It's not too outrageous to let her see all good, to feel safe, to balance out those seven years.

Komi's thoughts are loops leaving no space in her mind. She can't let Iena fall back to those days where black was the only color she saw in and out. She refuses.

The Fujido matriarch sighs. "That's why I'm so grateful to those boys. Iena is so happy around them now. Her aura warms me a lot. It's very disheartening that they'll have to leave soon."

Those boys are all light. Each one glows differently, but still light.

"It's been a good four weeks, hasn't it?" Nana says ruefully.

"Yeah, it has. Maybe if we're lucky, they can stay for her birthday. She needs friends that aren't twice her senior." Atsuri, Yamazaki, Tonka, Nana, hell, even herself.

Komi clasps her hands together. "I wonder if the boys are still sleeping?" The aforementioned boys have been quiet for a while. They stayed up too late being, well, teens. Regular teenage boys instead of risky demon slayers.

Somehow, some way, when she begins her musing, Komi feels three lively auras downstairs.

"They're awake."

"Breakfast is already done," Nana states with a wink that elicits a smile from Komi.

"Nana, you're such a joy."

The two women head downstairs and split ways, Nana to the kitchen and Komi to the boys' room. On her way there, she encounters them on the other side of the hallway, the one that leads to the bathroom. It's most likely they just left the bathroom to stroll to their room. Stroll is a wrong word. A storm made of noise and banter. Already, Komi is having a good dose of laughter for today.

"Good morning, Tanjiro-kun, Zenitsu-kun, Butaro-kun!" She calls to them first.

The boys stop. Tanjiro pulls his usual sunny smile. Komi tries not to fawn over his cuteness. "Good morning, Komi-san!"

"Good morning! Beautiful as always, Komi-san!" Zenitsu snaps his fingers at her, a joyful face and pink cheeks.

"My name is Inosuke!" Inosuke gets right to the point, clenching his teeth. Komi laughs off his statement, and wow, does that irritate him to the extreme.

"Now you know how it feels when people get your name wrong over and over and over again," Zenitsu quips, eyes landing on the boar boy.

"And not apologize for it," Tanjiro adds in. Yet, seeing Inosuke's mannerisms, Tanjiro isn't expecting anything. At all.

"Shut it, Shinatsu, Chabiro."

"See, there! You proved my point right there!" Zenitsu hisses.

Komi shakes her head and laughs again, more hysterical than before, head thrown back atop her clear, light neck. The boys don't quite know how to react when it comes to Komi's eternal laughter. Tanjiro really hopes she doesn't pop a lung while laughing, knowing that she's ill.

Komi waves, wafting away her own laughter. "You boys are a riot," she says. "Did you enjoy yourselves last night? It was pretty rambunctious from what I heard upstairs."

"We definitely did!" Tanjiro gushes. "We threw pillows at each other and played games the whole night!"

"I definitely won that fight! I hit you guys so many times I couldn't count." Inosuke revels in victory.

"You can't count," Zenitsu says, flat as roadkill.

"Still…!"

This must be it, Komi thinks. This must be what Iena feels having them around for nearly a month getting to know them. Every time they acted silly or just smiled their own smiles, they pierce through all the bad in her life and make everything well.

Komi's eyes shine with no way to dim them. "Breakfast is ready."

"Yes!" Inosuke grins.

"Did Goddess-chan make it?" Zenitsu does a small gleeful dance in his spot.

"Nope," Komi replies. "Goddess-chan isn't here." He stops.

"What?!" Zenitsu's outburst came as sudden as that answer. "Are you telling me my cute, sweet Goddess-chan who promised she'll cook for me for the rest of my life, isn't here?!"

"Uh…Yes!" Komi confirms. Zenitsu's eyes are close to shattering in agony.

"Where did she go?" Tanjiro asks.

"On a hike," Komi answers relatively calm. Way calmer than she was before. Tanjiro frowns like someone dropped a bowl of his favorite food on the ground.

"Without us?!" Inosuke screams. Fumes blow out his boar nostrils like smoke over a boiling pot.

Komi watches their interesting demonstrations at the absence of her niece. It brings such happiness to her face. "She'll be back, no need to cry over her not being here." She motions them to follow her, in which they do. Tanjiro and Inosuke join her left side while Zenitsu joins her right.

"How about this? Let's take a walk around the neighborhood today, right after breakfast," Komi suggests with a glistening smile. "This neighborhood is just as fun as the city, I guarantee it."

It's another nice day to walk amongst good weather. Iena may possibly be back when they come back, so why waste it in the estate? The prospect of venturing through the neighborhood sounds enjoyable.

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke don't contemplate for long. Immediately after breakfast, they dash to their room to change into their casual clothes, ready to see what more Kawagoe has to offer.

* * *

Tanomozawa, considered as the countryside of Kawagoe, no matter the scarce farms and many newborn houses built by stone and sweat. The neighborhood is what a village becomes with no city planning and a great enthusiasm for architecture. Every building is different, borrowing this and that from other eras, every patch of land is unique in one way or another.

The neighborhood lays before them like a divine fingerprint, curving and changing, no two parts the same; The dip and sway of the land, the patterns and species of flora, the ever changing sky and wind, sleek black roads that shine like silky ribbons.

It's a sight to behold for Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. To think they traveled through these trails and never noticed how scenic the neighborhood is. Given, they were tired, bodies beat up, insides knocked around with no remorse from their last mission.

But, today is a day for sunshine and rambling with a doting Komi willing to make the best of it.

"This place is beautiful! It's way better than the city!" Tanjiro exclaims, consumed by wanderlust for the place.

Komi grins. "It is, isn't it?"

"You don't like the city so of course it's better to you," Zenitsu says dryly. "But, it is really nice."

"What is there to do here?" Inosuke asks, arms behind his head in a nonchalant position

Komi contemplates. Despite Tanjiro's discomfort for the city, all of them still had fun hopping from place to place, from the way they described their experience yesterday. Komi wants them to have as much fun in this modest neighborhood as they did in the city.

She swishes her mouth. Then, an idea appears. "There's a shop not too far from here. How about we go there and I'll buy you boys some gifts. We can get some _dango _afterwards. Would you like that?"

"Now, you're talking!" Inosuke strikes a smirk.

"Is it the same dango that shady guy brought to the estate?" Zenitsu asks. Komi immediately knows who he's referring to and snickers continuously like a loud woodpecker. She can't wait to tell Atsuri one of the boys called him shady.

"Yes, it's the same _dango_, but I'm not shady," Komi brings her face close to Zenitsu's face, the boy melting into a pink puddle, "am I?"

"No! A beauty like you can never be shady! Not to me!" Zenitsu proclaims as if it's law. His own law system, perhaps.

Komi moves her face away from the blond boy and sends a teasing grin. "Ready?"

Zenitsu and Inosuke nod, but Tanjiro sucks in his lips, very troubled. "Komi-san, you don't have to buy us anything more. You, Fujido-san, and Nana-san have spent so much on us."

"Speak for yourself, you forehead idiot," Zenitsu murmurs. He makes sure it goes unheard, maybe not wanting Komi to think him selfish.

Komi's a little bothered Tanjiro calls his niece 'Fujido-san', the most polite, distant honorific suffix. That's most likely Iena's fault, probably demanded him to use that honorific title. She ignores the long yearning to chop her niece in the throat and answers Tanjiro. "Don't worry about it! The money spent doesn't put one dent in our funds. How do you think wisteria houses get supplies to properly house demon slayers?'

Tanjiro shakes his head. "It's still not fair."

Komi stops, lips slightly parted. This boy…

_This boy needs to be my nephew-in-law this instant!_

"Komi-san?" Tanjiro calls. She's doing some extreme non-movement, just staring at him through sparkled eyes. "Komi-san?"

She snaps out of it. "That's sweet, Tanjiro-kun, but I don't mind. Let me spoil you kids for today."

"I'm not a kid!" Inosuke yells with a cross of his arms.

Tanjiro turns to him. "Maybe not. You do have a smell of an actual man." Komi accidentally snorts.

"What the hell does that even mean, Tanjiro!" Zenitsu shouts.

"Means I'm more of a man than you!" Inosuke taunts which Zenitsu gnashes his teeth at, filing his canines. Inosuke might as well shank his pride to death.

Komi shakes her head in amusement "Let's go."

As they walk, the neighborhood grows more picturesque than before. Houses, while unevenly spaced, blend in with the decorative patterns this neighborhood has. Tanjiro notices the abundance of wisteria trees planted in each house's gardens. They sway like wind chimes, petals leaving like sound would a bell.

"There are a lot of wisteria trees, in full bloom too." Tanjiro watches petals drift further away.

"Yes. Tanomozawa is considered the safest place in Kawagoe. The wisteria trees are known to ward off any evil."

Any demon, Tanjiro replaces.

"This was done by the Fujido clan," Komi starts.

"What!" Zenitsu whips his head to Komi, slack-jawed. "The clan planted all these trees?!"

She nods. "At the beginning of each spring, the Fujido clan would go as far as they could reach and plant trees in people's gardens. It was a tradition of sorts. After the trees are planted, the two heads of the household would perform a dance."

"A dance?" Tanjiro whispers, captivated. Zenitsu and Inosuke soon tune into the story, eyes now on her.

Komi hums, long and soothing. "Dance of the Wisteria, a dance only shared amongst the clan. The dance is mainly for the celebration of spring. Legend says that if the dance is not performed each year, then spring will be stolen and swallowed by winter."

"Do you know the dance, Komi-san?" Tanjiro asks.

Komi slows down her walking pace, the clacks of her sandals more apparent. The boys slow down as well. She hasn't answered yet, and Tanjiro fears that his question was a bit prying.

"No, I do not," Komi eventually answers. The boys gasp slightly, triple expressions of shock. "The head, at the time, wasn't able to teach me, but he taught Iena being that she is his daughter."

"Goddess-chan knows the dance?" Zenitsu smiles. "I wanna see her do it!"

"She hasn't performed nor practiced it in a while." Komi sighs into the spring wind. "Actually, she wouldn't like me talking to you about this. It's a touchy subject." She regains her former walking pace and shares a smile between all three of them. "Have I mended your curiosity?"

"No! You've done the opposite!" Zenitsu whines. "I'm more curious!"

"Well, that's on Iena's end if you are." Komi pats Zenitsu's shoulder in sympathy.

"Then I'll never know." Zenitsu slumps over, limp like a wet noodle.

"Don't be so gloomy about it!" Komi offers a carefree smile to Zenitsu who immediately straightens himself, revived by that oh so wonderful smile.

A dance. It's a repeat in Tanjiro's head. Dance. Tanjiro can't help but wonder if the Dance of Wisteria is similar to the dance his father taught him. They're both used for celebratory reasons, New Years and Spring Equinox. Also, they're both exclusive dances.

Curiosity grips him tight. He can't ask Iena about it. It'll be insensitive of him. A dance passed down through generations, but Iena and Komi are the only two in the estate a part of the clan.

What happened to the Fujido clan?

"We're here." Tanjiro breaks away from his mind, ears active.

They're near a shop. It's a shop amongst other shops sprinkled past it, but this one has a sense of adventure. It's similar in design to some of the city shops, but it's small, humble and is an open door shop, most of the merchandise stands outside, stacked neat and impeccable. To Tanjiro, the place smells of wood and tea and happiness.

An old man, more than likely the owner, sweeps dust away from his very serene shop.

"Mori!" Komi hollers with a fan-like wave.

The old man looks up and a smile instantly appears. "Komi!" The old man, Amegami Mori, heads towards her. Komi meets him halfway, not wanting the old man to stumble too much getting to her.

"Komi, Komi! You look better, more healthy today!" Mori compliments.

"Thank you. I feel it too. It's why I decided to take a walk around the neighbo-"

"Cool!" Komi darts her head to see Inosuke dash to one of stands packed with masks. "They're so funny looking!"

"Who's that boy with the pig mask that looks very valuable. How much?" Mori looks at Komi as serious as a samurai in a battle with a dark feudal demon.

"I wish, but it's not for sale. You wouldn't want to see what's behind the mask. It's the stuff of legends."

"Curiosity fills me so," Mori laments to the ground. Komi shakes her head in amusement. Always so foolhardy, she thinks.

"But, really who are those boys?" Mori inquires.

Komi watches them and listens.

Tanjiro is over at the mask section, reminiscing on how the masks remind him of his master and the blacksmith who threatened to kill him over a sword. Oh yes, those isolated blacksmiths. An annoying bunch, Komi bemoans.

Zenitsu runs his eyes over a stand filled with flower hair barrettes. He gushes on how his lovely 'Goddess-chan' and 'Nezuko-chan' would look angelic if these were in their hair. Komi's glad Zenitsu knows her niece is too beautiful for this sinful earth.

Inosuke is by the animal figurines section, pointing and naming each animal he knows on the shelf. It's kind of adorable, Komi admits.

She smiles and if Iena were here, she'd laugh and call her dramatic. A dramtic aunt who's happiness rides on her dumb niece. "They're Iena's friends," Komi replies fluidly.

"That's nice. Thought the girl was going to grow up to be like you: rich but a hermit," He cackles with his hoarse voice from ages of tobacco smoke peeling his vocal cords raw.

Komi narrows her eyes, the tall tale of 'talk more shit and you'll become a fossil.'

Mori sputters.. "Komi, y'know I'm just joking!"

Komi is dead silent.

The old man coughs the joke away. "Speaking of the girl, where is she?" Komi and Mori stroll to the front of the shop.

"On a hike, per usual."

"Collecting herbs." It's not a guess.

"Hmm."

Mori stops and picks up his straw broom. "Helps the sick. Helped me. I'll thank that little girl till the end of time. Or until the _kamis _finally decide to set fire to the world."

"Don't start your rants, please," Komi begs **because she has heard five volumees worth of religion and theories and how the Western demons are going to annihilate everyone, even children.**

Mori cackles once more. "I know, I know. I'm not. Those boys look like they're ready for you anyway." Mori points to Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke lined up behind her, their chosen items clutched to their chests.

Tanjiro holds a red tengu mask, thick white clouds for eyebrows curved and lifted, a sign of happiness. The mask has a white toothy smile, cheeks bunched with golden eyes, a blue tint above it like a small sunrise. The moustache and goatee are similar to the design of the eyebrows, rolling clouds.

Komi raises an eyebrow and cringes a bit.

"You see!" Zenitsu turns wild eyes to Tanjiro. "You see Komi-san's reaction! That mask is ugly and evil!"

"It's similar to what my master wears." Tanjiro slips it on. "See, there's nothing wrong. You should try it on."

"HIE! Get away from me with that you evil forehead monster!" Zenitsu zips out of Tanjiro's sight and guns for the back of the shop.

"C'mon Zenitsu! It's only a mask. Try it on! It warms your face when you're cold." Tanjiro follows after the blond boy.

"I'M NOT COLD! STAY BACK!"

What unfolds is a chase around the outskirts of the shop, red chasing yellow, yellow busting his lungs in fright, and out of nowhere, a boar joining the pursuit because, why not?

If Mori laughs any louder, Komi would think he'd suffer from a heart attack mid laugh. "Yes, I approve! These are her friends! They have to be!"

"They are," Komi emphasizes with a smirk. As comical as this routine is, it's such sad sorrow that Komi has to put an end to it. She clasps her hands. "Are you done picking your gifts?"

Their laps around Mori's shop come to a close as Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke halt exactly in front of said shop.

"Yes, Komi-san!" Tanjiro confirms. Zenitsu agrees with him and Inosuke lifts a wooden-carved squirrel holding an acorn figurine into the air for all to view, an indication for his confirmation, Komi guesses.

"Alright, I'll ring you up!"

Zenitsu had an armful of flower barrettes, but Komi demanded him to put it back. If it's for her niece, Komi might as well buy it herself. She probably will. Some of these are really cute.

Zenitsu, instead, grabs cool hair bands for himself, explaining that his bangs sometimes flop around and blinds him too much so he wouldn't mind tying it up occasionally.

Inosuke is visibly elated by his squirrel figurine. He holds it tight with his two rough hands, determined not to let it fall. It throws Komi off a little. She would've thought he'd pick an animal more wild or vicious.

However, before she can pay for the gifts, she spots a charm. A plethora of charms hanging behind a busy Mori. A field of colorful charms united by one golden kanji.

_Bond_

"Mori, can you give me five charms? The ones behind you."

Mori glances behind his shoulders. "Sure. Which color?"

"Red, yellow, blue, purple, and pink." Komi lists on her fingers.

Mori adds the charms to the group of gifts and Komi pays for everything, unable to wipe the smile off her face. It's a smile with just the right touch of rosy, and she feels absolutely satisfied.

Everyone snags their respective gifts, but Tanjiro, fairly confused at the extras Komi bought, shifts his attention from his tengu mask to the charms in her hand. "They're pretty, but why did you get them?

He doesn't expect for Komi to hand him the red charm. Neither does Zenitsu and Inosuke when she hands them the yellow and blue. They look at her, puzzled by the added gifts.

"Good luck charms. I thought you'd like them," Komi sums it up simply. She dangles the purple and pink charm next to each other. "The purple one is for Iena."

"And the pink one?" Tanjiro has to ask because he's aware and maybe already knows the answer, but he wants to hear his thoughts through Komi's voice.

A lopsided but gentle smile takes over her face. "I hope she likes it." Komi slides the pink charm into the tengu mask along with some hair barrettes and ribbons. Tanjiro looks at the pile astonished. His mouth opens, his red eyes wide and round like the coins inside Komi's handbag. He looks at Komi once more, the woman who still has a big smile on her face, and it's so eager it brings color to Tanjiro's face.

"Thank you." The warmth climbs from his heart, to his smile, and to his eyes. From that earnest expression, Komi realizes she and Tanjiro are similar. Both of their happiest smiles come from their precious person's joy and this unspoken revelation has her grow fonder of the boy in front of her.

"Thank you so much, Komi-san!" He repeats his gratitude. "She'll definitely like them, I know it for sure!"

Komi's smile changes into a sneaky smirk. Tanjiro isn't too affected by it, but is aware of the sudden switch and of course is severely confused..

"Here." Komi places the purple charm into his tengu mask, right next to the pink one half buried by ribbons and barrettes.

Tanjiro blinks "Didn't you say this one is for-"

"You wouldn't mind giving it to Iena for me, would you?" Komi's voice is sweet as spun sugar. Zenitsu's jaw drops.

Tanjiro is a bit startled, but he ends it with a dutiful smile. "Of course not, Komi-san. I'll be happy to give it to her."

"Wonderful!" Komi cheers, rubbing her hands together.

Of course, Zenitsu has figured out Komi's ploy and red washes over his vision chanting the death and damnation of an ignorant, dense, stupid forehead Kamado boy **because how can he stand here and watch a clueless Tanjiro not recognize this jackpot opportunity**.

NO FAIR, his soul seethes. "TANJIRO!"

In a hot second, Zenitsu is in Tanjiro's face, a hysterical raging mess, shrill cries so loud it parts the clouds above. He latches on to Tanjiro, fists his shirt as if gearing to slug him black and blue.

"YOU LUCKY BASTARD! DIE! YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO DIE! DROP DEAD RIGHT NOW!"

"What do you mean and why would you say something like that to me?!" Tanjiro yells right back in his face. "Have you no morals?!"

"HAVE YOU NO SENSE?! JUST SHUT UP AND DO ME A FAVOR! DIE!"

Inosuke, with a pretty painted squirrel faithfully by his side, mocks their squabble, not even knowing what the argument is about. **Not to say that Tanjiro does.**

While their squabbles are amusing, there's no such thing as wasting time in Tanomozawa. "To the _dango_ shop!" Komi declares.

* * *

The cart ride is taking longer than expected.

It puts her in a slight frenzy. The horses have grown tired from the arduous journey, and while she has nothing against the animals, she's pressed for time. She has to be back at the gates by sunset.

Iena steps off the cart and heads over to the driver giving the horses some water. He's a middle-age man, steadily leaning towards elderly by the little sprouts of gray hair. He wears a causal kimono, not as wonderfully crafted as the clothes Nana bought for Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, but still fitting for someone who has to steer horses all day.

"Excuse me," Iena says. The man looks away from the horses to her. "How long will this take?"

"When the horses decide they have enough water," he sasses. Iena balks at this. Maybe she should've taken the train...Lie. Taking the train was never going to be an option.

The man then rolls his head as if cracking away a lifetime of stress. "Look, everyone's in a hurry nowadays, but I promise ya. You'll get to your destination. Maybe not on time, but ya get there."

"That's the problem," Iena replies with a terrible frown. "I have to get home by sunset."

The man chuckles. "What? Afraid of the dark?"

"Yes." She flat out tells him. "And you should too."

The man freezes. His mouth parts and despite the horse lapping up water and chatter from the few people in the cart, she hears the tiny swallow of air. The stillness between the two lasts for quite a bit. Iena grows increasingly uncomfortable at this.

The man finally moves his mouth. "Oh no. Don't tell me you're one of those who believe in demons." He slaps a hand to his forehead and laughs, not derisively. It's a good-natured laugh and Iena tilts her head at it. She sucks in her lips as the guy continues his laughter. He deciphers as: a kid who was indoctrinated by adults to believe in demons and folklore. A ploy to not have them stay out too long.

That laugh tells it all.

He soon quiets down and approaches her. He pats her shoulder like he would a child that spits nonsense, but they look adorable while doing so.

He sighs. "There's no such thing as demons, girly. It's folklore. Your parents tricked ya. Gave ya a little scare to behave." A gentle squeeze. "Tricked ya because they love ya. I do that to my kids all the time," He says so definitively.

"My parents are dead," Iena says it so bluntly, it catches him off guard and he nearly loses his footing.

The man stares at her, not earning a blink from the girl. Iena is neutral in an unpleasant way. She's not sad or empty even. She's flattened those bumpy roads a long time ago, the harrowing cracks of bleakness and exhaustion she's been stumbling through for seven years. Opening up trails of thought she refused many times to go down

Iena shuts her eyes, very, very tight.

The weight of the words that she so practically said lingers thick between them. Eventually, the horses finish drinking the water, beads of water and spittle scattered on their mouth and nostrils.

"They died a long time ago," Iena continues without thought and a flourish open of her eyes. She throws the man an indecipherable look, lips curled but somehow not fully smiling. "It's only natural for people to die, isn't it?"

The man exhales, quick and quiet. "Yes it is," he agrees.

The tall, gangly man leaves her side and heads to the horses. He lifts the wide, wet open crate the horses were drinking from and lugs it to the left side of the cart. Iena watches all of it, jaw unintentionally clenched. For how skinny and bony he is, skin bound to bone, she's a bit stunned he can carry an object big and most likely heavy.

He lets out a labored sigh and, with an unexpected twist of his head, he says to her through a calm stare, "Everyone got death inside them. It's just a question whether or not you can outlive it."

What a phrase to have Iena's face swing through many different forms of shock. Yet again, unintentional. His words feel like a relentless needle, picking at her until she has to acknowledge that the needle actually hurts a little and she must stop it before it goes deeper and hurts a lot.

"Outlive…" She echoes a quiet murmur.

"Hmm?" The man flicks his brown eyes to Iena once more.

"What if," she starts very softly, "a person can't outlive it. Death." She clutches the woven strap of her basket. "What if a person can't outlive death because someone else didn't want them to."

The man is silent but peers at her with faint sadness, though Iena refuses to see it.

"The world ain't right, girly. You should know that." He says as if he's lecturing her. Iena subtly grows tense. "Hell, there are persons who can't wait for their time and seek death themselves."

Iena really tries to not look at the man at all. She doesn't mean to come off as offhanded or rude, but the man's words bring more needles set on poking holes the span of a lake.

Those holes will leak again, and she can't allow that.

"Mister…" She turns to him, but he's already securing the horses to the cart. The horses neigh to the road, kicking, whining almost as if they have no will or desire to move forward. Iena smiles a little, finding their protests cute and humorous. Trouble for the man steering, but adorable nonetheless.

Adorable like Nezuko.

Iena wears a shiny grin at the thought of her. There's one reason why she needs to hurry with this mountain trip.

"Back in the cart, girly!" The skinny man orders. "I'm not speeding. Telling you that from now."

"Yes! Coming!"

* * *

Lake Isanuma is massive and is as flat as any mirror.

It's unbothered, unsmudged by anything, a sign of how devoted locals are to the wellbeing of the lake. The lake is pink and purple with the reflection of cherry blossoms and wisteria trees comfortably cropped around it. It doesn't move with the spring wind, it's an entity of its own. With the surrounding trees and petals turning and floating, the lake does sit as a mirror, nature's own vanity.

A deep sense of serenity falls on Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke at the view. This is one feature they wouldn't find in the city, and it was a much-appreciated one. They went to the dango shop and ate themselves full with plenty of dango. Then they stumbled upon a juggler who performed his tricks underneath a cherry blossom tree. The boys were amazed at what the man could do with only two sticks and a ball, and the juggler had no qualms when Inosuke wanted to give a shot.

The boar did great and was met with joyous applause, and of course, Inosuke reveled in it. Zenitsu had to admit that Inosuke could make a great acrobatic and performer if he was less of a fool. Now, they're at this lake that calmed even the most rambunctious of the trio.

They edged the lake and the boys dropped their eyes to the water. Deep and majestic water that dares for anyone to enter.

"Beautiful lake, isn't it?" Komi's eyes flicker to the boys who follow behind her like goslings.

"It really is." Zenitsu keeps his sight on the lake.

"It's beloved amongst the locals," Komi tells them. "A lot of people like to come here and enjoy the view." Her slow stride along the lake fades and the boys halt.

She gently descends into the grass and sits, maneuvering and smoothing her kimono to sit at a suitable position. When done, she looks at them, head inclined slightly to one side. "Come, sit."

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke settle beside Komi, Tanjiro on her right, Zenitsu and Inosuke on her left. Even the grass is comfortable, soft, thick and tamed and a little ticklish.

"Tanomozawa is a really nice place," Tanjiro says.

Komi hums in soft delight, face in a slight pensive state.

"Yeah! That's why I need to stay here with Komi-san and Goddess-chan!" Zenitsu professes.

"I wouldn't mind, Zenitsu-kun," She responds, which sets Zenitsu's face ablaze. "I don't think 'Goddess-chan' would mind either."

"Where the hell is she?" Inosuke whines as he plops to the grass below, squirrel figurine cradled ini his arms.

"I told you, Butaro-kun. She's on a hike." Komi champions a grin when she hears Inosuke emit angry dying boar noises.

"Do you think she's back now?" Tanjiro asks.

"I hope so," Komi answers, but her answer betrays her thoughts of knowing that Iena is definitely not back yet. They've been gallivanting in Tamonozawa for about three hours. That's only an extra hour past the two hour Iena is speculated to arrive at Natagumo. And that's if the cart ride came on time.

She cuts the worry trying to twist up her spine like a thorny vine.

She wonders if her niece is at the mountain already, hunting the grounds for herbs, taking them to create a bottle of life.

Komi is proud of what Iena does. The girl doesn't know how much an effect she has on the people she helped.

She brings her attention back to the boys and on a whim, on the back of curiosity, she asks, "What do you guys think of Iena?"

She can sense the shockwave between all three of the boys at the unexpected question. However, they recover, and by the rather happy looks on their faces, they can at least give a pleasant answer.

Inosuke sits up. "I want her to fight me," He declares. Komi makes a face.

"Are you an idiot?!" Zenitsu snaps. "You can't say that in front of her aunt!"

"Why not? When she threw you and Chabiro into the roo-"

"She did what?!" Komi interrupts, stunned.

Inosuke clenches his fist in glee. "Pachiro and the coward lost to her when she threw them into the room. That's why I want her to fight me!"

"But she apologized for it!" Zenitsu quickly intercepts.

"She also threw the plate at your face!"

"Okay, she didn't apologize for that one, but-!"

Komi is slack jawed. She didn't know Iena had done this. She did chide her for causing unnecessary ruckus ( and for the milk bread), but what a reveal to know she actually did that. _Man, I thought I helped her with that bad habit,_ she thinks as she grimaces.

"Is that the only reason?" Komi continues on.

Inosuke falters for a bit. Then, small white clouds seep from his nose, slow, puffy and bouncy. Even through the embalmed blue eyes of his mask, she can see a sheen, a turning twinkle deep inside..

He shakes his head like a dog airing out water from its fur and crosses his arms over his chest. "She's cool, I guess. She showed me how to read and buys nice stuff and let me inside the icehouse and can cook fish good. She's really fun to play with too. You should see her at tag!"

Komi actively listens as Inosuke pours all the things he likes about Iena. Once he's done, Komi turns to Zenitsu.

"What about you, Zenitsu-kun?"

Zenitsu springs into action, face flushed with a dopey smile. "Goddess-chan~! Goddess-chan is the best! She's pretty, has a nice smile, gentle, is fun to be around and has a beautiful sound inside her now.."

"What do you mean by that?" Komi genuinely asks, eyes solely on Zenitsu now.

"I have a good sense of hearing so whatever a person's feeling, there's a sound that comes from them" He fiddles with his fingers, pressing his index fingers together, a cozy blush on his face. "Goddess-chan's sound at first didn't sound good at all. It was screechy, dark and low, and unpleasant. But as the weeks went by, the sound lifted and became very soft and joyful and delightful. It's way different from what I first heard."

Komi is actually fascinated by Zenitsu's explanation. He as well has an enhanced sense, and it's the sense of hearing. Can she compare it to her sense and Iena's sense? She's more spatial while Iena is more eyesight. Similar to Zenistu and his hearing, Iena can sense someone's emotions through eyesight.

Interesting, Komi muses. She faces Tanjiro. "You, Tanjiro-kun?"

Tanjiro looks to Komi, but surprisingly, looks back at the glistened lake. "Around the first week me, Zenitsu, and Inosuke came to the estate, I could tell she's kind and thoughtful. Not to us maybe, but she'd do anything for you and Nana-san, similar to how I'd do anything for my sister."

Tanjiro points to his nose. "Like Zenitsu with his ears, I have a good sense of smell. It made me sad when I would smell how upset she was around us, sorrow and hurt from something I wanted to understand."

Enhanced smell. He can also discover someone's emotions but through his nose. Komi tries not to cave into intrigue and shock. Do they know about Iena's senses? Did she ever tell them?

"There's something that happened to her because of demon slayers, and I wanted her to know that it's not all. I'm glad that she's comfortable around us now. I finally got to smell happiness from her yesterday. Yesterday was the most fun I had in a long time thanks to her. And to know she gives medicine to help people is amazing in my eyes."

His eyes break away from the lake and meets Komi's eyes with a smile that sun rays can't reach. "She's a great person, and I'm glad to have met her."

Komi is rendered mute. She doesn't stay that way for too long. She sniffles, which draws the attention of all the boys, and clasps her hands together. Iena finally has people her age that enjoys her presence.

Iena's world doesn't only have to be of herbs and wisteria, not with these three. No, four. "Thank you."

"Komi-san, don't cry!" Tanjiro panics. His hands wander through the air like they want to do something productive but has no clue how to accomplish such feat.

"She's not really crying, Tanjiro," Zenitsu says.

"How would you know?" She asks, her face buried into dainty fingers.

"I don't see one single tear!"

"I'm crying on the inside."

"That doesn't count as crying," Inosuke yells.

She removes her face from her hands and gives a cheeky grin. "Ok, you got me." She reclines her head and chuckles to the sky. However, within a second, her chuckles end. Komi squints, eyes piercing through the clouds, head slightly tilting left and right. She watches the sky with close attention.

"Let's go, " She tells them as her head descends from the sky to the lake.

"Already?" Inosuke grumbles and stands.

"Yes, it's time to go." She rises to a stand, brushing off grass blades stuck on her lower part of her kimono.

Zenitsu whines in disappointment, but a pleasant idea kicks him to a stand. "Well, maybe next time we can come here with Goddess-chan."

Komi shakes her head no which leaves Zenitsu confused. "She doesn't like coming here."

"What?! But this place is beautiful!" Tanjiro cries as he too stands.

A breeze whispers through the grass, the clouds shut away the sun. The lake finally stirs.

"She says the lake is too deep for her liking," Komi replies.

Inosuke snorts. "What kind of excuse is that?"

"Hey, don't say that Inosuke," Tanjiro chides. "If she's uncomfortable being here, we can't force her."

"How are we supposed to go again if she doesn't want to come?" Inosuke retorts.

Komi sighs. She doesn't know if she should be dispirited by Inosuke's comment or not. He just wants to hangout with the boys and her niece, which she's thrilled about. But, here, right here, isn't the best place. Not for Iena.

"I'll show you one more area, then we'll go back to the estate," Komi states as she leads the group back to the path of the road. She stops short, and turns to Tanjiro and Zenitsu. "Can you both explain to me your sensing ability? It's very interesting. I want to hear more of it."

Tanjiro and Zenitsu exchange looks. "Sure, Komi-san," Tanjiro answers for both of them.

So they explain as thoroughly as they could, but frankly, it's a distraction. A needed distraction for Komi not to see that she has to break Iena's heart.

They leave Lake Isanuma with a crow following their backs.

* * *

Natagumo is boring.

It's nothing but trees and dirt. The mountain's landscape can't compete with Hokori's. She can admit the land is nice and fertile, maybe more fertile than Hokori's. It could be a plausible reason for the overabundance of trees. But, this doesn't sway her opinion.

And she was yet to find the tree peony. Asai said mid-region, but she's sure she passed mid-region and is traveling up a slope to wherever this goes. It may have been her fault at this. She should've asked Asai for a map or for her to draw a layout or something. Good thing she's been using her machete to mark certain trees. She couldn't take the risk of getting lost.

Listening to the cicadas isn't too bad. They're the ones providing the nature sounds aside from the birds and the spring breeze. Actually, another redeeming quality is that there are so many trees, it's impossible not to receive shade. The sun is pretty hot today, but Iena couldn't feel the real effects of it because of the trees, so there's that.

Clouds appear above as she treks, thick slashes on trees caused by her machete as distinguishing features so she wouldn't be lost. It took a bit of time for her to finally find the tree peony. But when it comes to her sight, she immediately recognizes it and notices how it's taller than the one she grew on Hokori.

She gets to work.

The air has that smell of woodland, the fragrance of leaves and loam, damp too. The clouds, from what she sees through a canopy of trees, don't look like they're ready to burst with rain, and Iena hopes they don't.

Tanjiro would definitely smell what she's smelling right now. It'd be helpful if he could cut the branch, too. His cutting is very clean.

Iena shakes her head and strikes one of the tree peony branches with the machete. After two more strikes, the thick branch falls from the tree and lands on the ground with a small thump. She cocks her head side to side and pouts.

Zenitsu would be really happy to cut this branch up again. He did it so fast the last time, it was incredible.

Iena sighs and latches her focus back on to the tree. She targets another branch, this one slightly thinner, and slices at it. The branch rocks a little bit until it finally drops. Iena quickly ditches her machete and catches the falling branch.

Maybe if Inosuke was here, she would've persuaded him to catch the falling branches instead. He's the main reason she's out here in the first place. If not, he'd complain about not doing anything while everyone else got to do something.

Iena giggles. What would they say?

'Fujido-san, the branch looks really thick. I can help you cut it down!'

'She doesn't always need help from you, you forehead moron! Goddess-chan!'

'Anything you guys can do, I can do too. Even better! I'll cut it down!'

'Hashibira-kun, I don't want you near the tree. Your hands are pretty destructive' she'd probably say to him. He might take the last part as a compliment.

"He would!" Iena figures, giggling all the while.

Iena realizes she's been talking to herself for the past six minutes. Her cheeks flush red in embarrassment. Thankfully, she's by herself for no one to witness her one-man stage act.

Securing her machete, she continues her work with a silly grin. There goes another three reasons on top of her five to get home as quickly as possible. She tries not to let that conversation with the driver ruin her mind. The thoughts of everyone at the estate is pushing it away effortlessly.

It takes ten minutes for her to finish, branches cut and neatly stacked in the basket along with her machete.

She's kind of bored again. It's at times like these that she wishes she had brought a book to hide behind. One of Yamazaki's books, specifically.

"Time to go."

The length of the distance from the tree peony to the tree she marked previously wasn't too far. She gathers her belongings and begins her way down the mountain. She'd made this observation before, but the place really does have a lot of trees. In some places, because of the branches and leaves of trees huddled together, it's like a makeshift roof, only being able to see bits and pieces of the now clouded sky.

It reminds her of the thick canopy of wisteria in the garden, open and lush. Maybe when she gets back, she can water some plants in her garden.

Tanjiro can help if he wants- which he most likely will. Zenitsu, too. And Inosuke, he can watch or she'll find something he can distract himself with. They can show Nezuko some of the flowers. Iena will have to see how she can prevent the wisteria from affecting her too much.

A smile comes to her, so natural and freeing, and the steps she takes are steadfast to the path she has taken to reach here. How she came to think like this, she can't pinpoint the precise moment. But to her, she doesn't really need to, a scary thought if she should say. This happiness she has, it's risky and sometimes she feels like it's not right.

But she'd rather be happy than right any day, and now, there's nothing else to do today but just smile all the way home.

A pause. Iena stops and stands perfectly still like a mortified statue. Her smile drops along with her stomach. "...What?"

The previous path she took to get here was blocked by torn-up trees cracked in half, the halves fortifying the blockade further. The trees have been gutted and forcibly weakened, some half-collapsed and completely down.

This was the path where she last marked a tree.

Iena's mouth is bone dry. "How...I just came from there…."

It was clear before, easy to pass through without any problem. She had swung her machete around on the path like a toy from boredom, prepared to slash the second to last tree. There was a lot of green in the area, the greenest part of the mountain she has seen.

Now, it's walled off by broken trees encased in moss.

She hastily walks to it for a reason she's too wary to give and splays her hands against the bark. Of course, it's impossible to move any of these massive trees blocking her way home.

"I was just….just on this trail." She would've heard the trees fall, right?

Something in her chest breaks in half, suspicions lodged in her throat, but she immediately pushes it back together in the right place. She can't panic. She won't grapple with the worst outcome because-

It's day, it's daytime, **it's still daytime**.

Even with the sun covered by clouds, it's still day.

"I'll find another way," She assures and makes an about-face. Another path or even if she has to create a path, she'll leave the mountain and get home by sunset and will see everyone waiting for her. However, this is worrisome. What happened for the trees to fall and block the path in that sort of way? She hasn't encountered any wild animals, and she doubts any wild animal can do damage to that sort of scale.

Iena clutches the straps of her woven basket. She has to head south to leave this mountain, she believes. The guaranteed trail is completely blocked without mercy, no narrow space to squeeze through. It's futile to climb. Too many trees are piled up.

The only thing she can do is dive into the condensed part of the mountain.

Iena treads, cuts through foliage and wayward trees, steps carefully over knotted roots. She thinks more and more now that she should continue paving through the overwhelming foliage. She should probably take out her machete and start cleaning away the crowded greens and the needle leaves around her and forget what this situation could entail.

Yet it's not possible. It's still daytime and that is that. And she still has time before sunset to leave.

Soon enough, she comes across a trail. A semblance of a path, as if a person before had clawed it out, snipped off some branches and dug up some dirt. Iena grimaces. Her eyes widen momentarily then narrow.

There's nowhere else to go. And the path appears to be heading south.

Iena goes down the trail, and yes, it is leading her south. The trees are denser in this location, and in turn, the area is darker. Iena walks on. She steps carefully through the thick maze of woodland. The canopy above is more distant, like a cloud of black-green beneath a cloud of silver grey.

A sharp intake of breath and a slow release.

The slow release of her breath crashes and burns. Feet stilled beneath her, pulling her to a halt.

It's day out, but she feels it, feels a tight pressure tapping away at her skull. A difference in the air, overbearing, more rotten than Nezuko's will ever be. It clings to her skin, coats it, a tangible weight, heavy and suffocating like being wrapped in a wet blanket.

There's more than one. **There's more than one.**

She turns her head side to side like clockwork. What she sees, what she hears is silence. But her sense knows all.

She doesn't dare run and ignores the tumbling flowers in her face.

Begonia: _Fear_

She moves. That's all she can do at this point. Just keep moving. The path gets a little messier. There are more sticks than before and a few stocky branches on the ground as if some of the trees have done excessive shedding. Iena kicks aside a weird shaped branch in the pathway.

She blinks. That branch did not feel hard at all.

Her eyes rush back to the branch she just kicked aside. The branch is white and a tad bit grimy, it extends into five fingers and looks fleshy. There's blood at the end of the branch.

The world spins and takes a tumble.

A human arm sits on the ground, exposed bones jagged and with drips of marrow.

The arm is fresh.

* * *

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke received their next mission.

"WAAAAAAAA! GODDESS-CHAN!"

"Zenitsu, let go of the gate!"

"NO! I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL I SEE GODDESS-CHAN!"

Komi and Nana stand outside the front gate with the boys, seeing them off for their next mission.

Disappointingly, without Iena.

Komi is devastated. It'll be harder now to salvage Iena's feelings once she returns home and see the boys gone. She knew this day would come, but she was at least hoping they'd be able to stay around for her birthday.

She sighs. Nana turns to her. "It's alright, Komi-sama. We'll both tell her when she comes back, and while it may not bode well with her, we'll help her through it. Just like we did before."

Komi swishes her mouth around, but ultimately, resigns to her words. "Thank you Nana. For her birthday, we can take her back to Ginza and let her enjoy herself a little more, maybe stumble upon a Westerner this time around."

"Sounds like it's more for you than Iena," Nana responds.

Komi gasps. "No! I just heard some sayings that Westerners are very attractive,"

"GODDESS-CHAN!" Zenitsu's screams cut through her Western romance fantasy. The reality presented is a dismayed but miffed Tanjiro trying to pry Zenitsu from the gate, Zenitsu tearing his lungs apart with wails of the absence of her niece, and a grumpy Inosuke huffing not too far away from the commotion, a not so good brew of emotions contained in his mask.

Such endearing reactions to depart without saying goodbye to Iena.

"This is so heart-warming," Komi squeals, hands maidenly on her chest.

"Zenitsu…!" Tanjiro pulls, strain a hold in his teeth, "we have to- GO!" He's finally able to yank the blond away from the gate.

"Let me go! GODDESS-CHAN!"

"You can send her a goodbye letter," Komi suggests.

"NO!"

Gathering a hysterical Zenitsu by the collar, Tanjiro turns to Komi and Nana. "Thank you for everything you've done for us. I really can't thank you enough. We're very grateful." He bows. Komi and Nana return in kind. He pulls for a smile, but the sunshine isn't there, and Komi can spot it.

"I know. I wish she was here too," Komi says with a rueful grin. "But please, be hopeful along your journey." Komi and Nana reveal small boxes, two sets of *_sekiei_ and *_hiuchigane _to perform *_kiribi_, stones for spiritual sparks, the golden kanji carved together in connected paths.

_Victory is assured_

"These stones have been blessed through countless eras, by many priests and priestesses to guide you from any evils in the paths you'll take from now onwards," Komi details, a soothing sense of grace in her words.

Three strikes, the sparks fly to them.

"Thank you very much!" Tanjiro beams.

"What's wrong with her?! Leaving like that and not coming back before we leave!" Inosuke suddenly screams from his pity corner, knuckles raised.

Everyone's startled by his outburst. The boar was wordless the entire time they've been outside, arms crossed with unwanted emotions a thick spread in his mask. It's as if the sparks have unleashed the negative emotions and Komi couldn't help but frown at him.

Insouke sounds like a sulky teen, or better yet, a petulant child who misses his mother. But she will not tease him with this.

"I really wish we could tell her goodbye," Tanjiro adds after. "I really wish Nezuko could tell her goodbye."

"Goddess-CHAN!"

Komi smiles or rather, she gives a subdued frown. "I know, I know, but there's nothing we can do. But, thank you." She gives the lowest of bows, body dipped and her head the level of Nana's small shoulders.

"Thank you so much for being in Iena's life. It's the happiest I've ever seen her been and that alone I give you my immense gratitude." Komi tries not to get choked up, especially not by the vision of Iena's brightest smile slipping away.

"Komi-san…." Tanjiro murmurs gently.

"And I know she's grateful for all of you too, so," Komi straightens herself, body and face, "may you live every day of your life, turn your wounds into wisdom, and keep your heads held high in the face of anything that may come against you."

Her words silence them, settle in their minds like a bird building a nest, and by those words, Tanjiro cries out, "We'll definitely come back! We'll definitely come back and visit!"

"We better!" Zenitsu finally breaks free from his maniacal wails to speak legibly.

"And when we come back, there better be fish!" Inosuke orders so brightly.

A smile, ever-calm, appears on both Komi and Nana's face. "Yes, yes, yes." Komi shakes her head. "Be careful on your way to-"

"Natagumo mountain," Tanjiro finishes for her.

All the air is knocked clean out of her lungs, her now useless, useless lungs.

"PLEGGGHH!" Komi doubles over and coughs, hoarse, so violent and dry, spit long wisps on her mouth. All the boys jerk back, so alarmed that their eyes shake from how wide they are.

Komi-sama!" Nana screams in such fright Tanjiro has never heard before.

Her coughs only become more brutal and wild; the boys see Komi's knees buckle every second, and they leap, surrounding Komi with frantic arms ready to help any which way they can. Komi latches her two unstable hands on Zenitsu's right shoulder and Tanjiro's left shoulder.

"Komi-san, you're sickly! You need to calm down!" Tanjiro all but cries, his red round coin eyes wide and pulsing like rapid blood.

"Ie-!" Another vicious cough and it burns so bad, but she'll say her name, even if her lungs turn to flames. "Iena! I knew it," Hacks chops her sentence, "Iena, she's-!" She points to wherever, to nothing, but they'll know, they desperately need to know that, "Iena is there! She's at Natagumo!"

Tanjiro's face has the look of being struck by a sharp arrow. Komi pants and desperately nods.

"Goddess-chan is there?! Goddess-chan!" Zenitsu whips his head to Tanjiro, his eyes bulging and mouth fast as his own natural speed. "Tanjiro! We have to leave now! Right now!"

"Yes, please bring her back here!"That one distraught sentence feels like fire against her throat from the furnace that are lungs have become. "Plea-" Komi clutches her throat, "-se, bring her back!"

A terrified Nana holds Komi's head, not minding the coughs and trickles of spit and hot tears all over her arms and hands.

"Please, go quickly!" Nana begs from her frightful wrinkled mouth.

"Kentaro! Senritsu!" Inosuke stomps. "Get your asses up!"

Inosuke doesn't need to tell Zenitsu anything. The blond shoots to a stand, already ahead of Inosuke and Tanjiro.

Tanjiro swiftly stands. He can't think the worst, and he won't. There have to be other demon slayers in the mountain. It'd be impossible if Iena didn't stumble upon one of them. They'll find her, kill the demon and bring her home safely.

And he promises Komi and Nana just that. Iena will be home safely unscathed. A promise with no room for skepticism. They'll make sure of it. Nothing will happen to their new friend.

Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke run out of the Fujido estate, the cries of two women on their shoulders and the cry of a friend on their minds.

* * *

Someone's been dismembered.

Recently. The arm, while dirty, still colors red, inside and definitely out.

Iena looks and can't stop looking. Panic curls her throat like clawed fingers and she quivers a little, sways in place at the limb amidst the dirt and leaves. She backs up with each second, her eyes linger on the human arm. A bloody human arm…

_**"Don't look!"**_

Iena darts her head the other way.

She inhales a shuddering breath that shakes her lungs, then rests the heel of her right hand on her forehead. It's real. There are demons here and if she doesn't flee, that can be her arm on the floor.

Begonias are a silent fall all over her body.

Iena clamps a hand over her mouth, counting her breaths because she noticed her breathing is all out of sorts, which might lead to the clan of demons smelling her fear. And fear, to them, seasons the meat real well.

She'd be foolish not to realize that they're using the natural darkness from the shades to enact their doings. And it's cloudy, a dark grey type of cloudy.

Forget about the bloody limb. Something like that is not new. Not new to her. Iena brings her head back and takes her hand away from her mouth.

Then she sees it.

In the dimmed rays of the cloudy sky, she sees silver strands coiled in the tree above her. She blinks at the silver strings roped and crossed in the tall tree. It stretches, leaves the tree above her, and stretches to the tree behind. It strings and stretches and hangs like great sheets of silver-white from tree to tree to tree that Iena can't follow anymore.

They're spider web strings. So many spider web strings in the trees around her and undoubtedly more. Or maybe the whole mountain.

They're still, the strings, taut on the leaves and barks, deep slopes from the top of the trees to the low of the green foliage.

Iena has a thought. It may not be a good one, the opposite in fact, but she has to try.

She picks a string low enough for her to catch. These strings appear to be regular spider strings despite them coming from a demon. It feels breakable when she touches it.

Iena slides a hand behind her back, flips open her woven basket. Her heartbeat is ready to crack a rib, sweaty palms a tight grip on the handle of the machete sliding out from the basket. Her lips curl on reflex, but then she raises the machete and brings it down on the spider web strings.

The machete chips on contact.

Iena's loud heartbeat can crack multiple ribs.

The strings come alive and snatch the machete in a fit of hostility and then breaks it in pieces less than a second later. Iena jumps away, now realizing that this idea was terrible and she knew it from the start. Yet, she was trying so hard for hope to come, to appear through anything because, in the dark, stars always shine through.

One string throws a blade at her, and she barely evades, tossing her head to the side as the blade flies past her. It slices her left cheek, bad; Iena can instantly feel blood running down to her chin.

She runs.

Runs so fast that her feet aren't touching the ground. She feels as if her blood is on fire and her fear is detaching her mind away from her body. The blades, silver streaks of bloodlust from her own machete, are like a barrage of arrows. They cut through the air from behind, and Iena ducks, clumsily evading.

She can't think, she can't think. She knows what to do, but she can't freaking think at all. It's too blank from fear and **the begonias won't go away**.

A blade is able to slash the left side of her neck. Not even enough time to take in the pain.

The faster she goes, the less accurate she becomes. This isn't her aunt. Komi isn't behind her lovingly tossing pointy objects at her to gauge her dodging skills. This isn't a playful predator and prey with her aunt. One misstep and a blade can sink into the back of her head.

Then there will be no more Komi to see.

Another blade manages to land on the right strap of her basket. The strap breaks unceremoniously, and Iena rips the basket off her back and swings it to her arms.

There are too many things trying to cram into her mind, taking up all the space like flooding water, but she catches a lifeline just in time before her mind can overflow.

Family, Iena hears.

Family, the unknown voice whispers again.

_Yes, family, which means I need to survive._

Iena flings her basket to the right, and she careens to the left.

The strings chase the basket. Before Iena slides into a deep, steep grove, Iena sees a glimpse of the basket, the outcome if she had gone to the right.

The strings seize the basket, pulls and digs into it, and the basket is cut into zigged zagged pieces, the chopped tree peony branches minced in one blink.

She shuts her dilated eyes and tucks into herself as she tumbles down a deep incline, hitting every part of the forest floor. The fall feels like an eternity until she falls into a thick bush and hits her black on a jutted root of a tree or a bush or whatever plant, it just hurts.

Little holes of the already dark shaded sky are all she sees as Iena lays still on the forest floor. The bush she's in is lodged in an indented pocket underneath a higher elevation. Some of the cracks in the upper level allow the bush to see some parts of the sky.

The demon's presence suddenly fades away like lightning after the strike. It lost her.

It'll be back, malefic presence hunting the grounds easily with all those spider web strings lined in the trees. Iena breathes in and out, a rushed meditation of sorts, hoping that the begonia will disappear. They soon do.

The bush she's in is suffocating and hard to move around. It's a wonder she's able to reach for her face and touch it. Iena winces. She can feel her wet blood creeping from it and although the gap of the slit isn't too bad, it still stings and the bush's leaves make it excruciating.

Next, the neck. It must be pretty awful if she can put the tip of her finger inside the slit. Her sweat makes it worse.

The pain, Komi-oba, Nana, the pain, she calls perpetually amongst the bush in this big, lonely demon-infested mountain.

How did it come to this?

Iena clenches her fist at the thought of the boar head boy who destroyed her original tree.

"No," she says, quick and quiet to herself and her thoughts. She refuses to build on that. It's not Inosuke's fault. How would he have known something like this would happen?

She thinks of all the boys and Nezuko and tries not to think of their backs as they walk away. Or maybe she's walking away. Or maybe they're both walking…

_I can't think straight._

As the light drains away from the cloudy sky, there is barely enough even for shadows. Whether she likes it or not, the sunset quickly comes and under it, everything in this forest is hidden further.

Her ears become sharper and her mind paranoid, every snap of a twig is a predator despite her clear cut senses. Hidden well inside the bush, she can't help but think of something most fearsome and her body prepares for flight, fright, or freeze. For the most part, she'll just freeze. Running will give her position away, and she can only evade for so long. She's not even in the right state of mind to do so.

She continues to wait. That's all she can do, lay on the ground. Her heart can beat all it wants, but this body won't move until she herself is good to move.

A lukewarm presence invades her senses. Iena snaps awake.

Warm, a small palpable beating. Humans are here, people. Iena isn't sure whether she should be happy or scared for them.

They have to be demon slayers no doubt, and they're so close.

Iena rushes to get out the bush and swims her way to the green surface with leaves scraping her face. It's difficult, but she breaks through the surface.

There are a couple of people in black uniforms- demon slayer uniforms, scouting the area, hands close to their swords. Iena notices the inordinate amount of cobwebs now, large spiders amid the branches stretched outward by tall trees.

Iena presses the heel of her hand against her forehead. None of them are the boys, not one. She whines and whimpers like a wounded animal. Do they even know she's here? Did Komi tell them?

Iena considers the situation.

She can't forgo a chance of escaping because of bias. She can't let her beliefs get her killed, not when she has people waiting for her with open arms and familiar smells of wisteria.

"Help…." Her throat feels like cotton, but she continues, "Help me," she can't be too loud. "Help me." _C'mon_.

One of them is able to hear her. A boy with black hair, bangs split in the middle and his features now alarmed. The boy pivots, hand instantly on the hilt of his sword.

"Murata, what's wrong?" One of them turned to his teammate.

"I swore I heard someone," Murata replied, eyes narrowed.

Iena pulls herself out from the bush in the concave space she resides. Everything hurts, but she throws the pain aside.

Murata is taken aback. "A girl?" He rounds her. "What're you doing here?! It's dangerous! There are man-eating demons in this mountain."

He stops. The dirt on Iena's clothes, the cuts on her cheek and neck raw with running blood and her disheveled hair tells Murata a story of last-minute survival.

A beat. "How long have you been up here?" Murata asks. The other members gather behind him, paying attention solely to Iena.

Iena contains her annoyance. It's not the time now. "I don't know," Iena responds. She rubs the blood off her left cheek. It feels like wet makeup on her skin. She glances down her arms and sees the blood has stained the cuffs of her long sleeves.

Murata and his group watch her. "Why are you here?" He proceeds with another question.

Iena sighs, "I came here to collect herbs. When I tried to go back down the path I came, it was blocked with trees."

"We saw that, Murata," one slayer tells him from behind. "There were a lot of trails that'd lead to the exit blocked with trees."

Iena goes very still. "...What?"

"Most of the paths are blocked off by trees. The one that you saw, that's not the only one," he elaborates.

Those strings did all that. In the depths of the shades, they did that.

The ground feels flimsy underneath her.

"Yeah, we did." Murata echoes his words, face in consternation.

He doesn't look certain at all, unfocused, and confused. Iena questions if she should stick with them.

Yet, they're the only ones who can slay these demons with those Nichirin swords, the swords her family provides for them. She tucks her distrust away and strides to them. "Will you be able to get me home?"

Murata looks dubious. He then blushes, scratches his cheek, and averts his eyes. "W-well we have to slay the demons who did this to you first."

"C'mon, Murata. There's no time for you to be all googley-eyed. We need to get rid of the demons and help her with her injuries." A demon slayer with a striped _haori_ that reminds her of Zenitsu rolls his eyes.

He shakes his head. "Right. Stick with us. We'll do our best to protect you."

Iena falters. "...Thank you." She follows them despite the doubt in her chest.

It's not known how long they've been traversing through trees and plants. The deeper they go, the more the demons' presence stifles her, so foul and off-putting. However, this could mean that they're close to the demons, the ones who created all these webs.

"So many wires and spiders," One of the members of Murata's squad says in disgust. Iena acknowledges it. There's been an increase of spiders and webs and strings, it makes the forest look like a dusty room to clean. Iena has never really been afraid of insects, at most just annoyed by them. But, the size of these spiders is rather gross.

_Family._

Iena stops abruptly.

_Bonds._

_What are yours?_

Why are they whispering that?

Everyone stops along with her. "Are you okay?"

They can't hear it. "I'm fine. I...just want to go home." That's the absolute truth.

Murata and his squad remain silent. They could throw words full of heartfelt promises, but they have an inkling it wouldn't do the girl any good. Sometimes the promise of something good can be just as frightening.

The path continues.

Murata has an air of incompetence to him, but he's guiding his team fairly well Iena admits. He turns around to meet everyone's gazes, a silent check to see if his team is well and will not stray from the group. It's admirable.

They walk and walk and Iena realizes that the twilight above them left them a while ago. There's nothing but nature, darkness, and spiders around them now. As they approach a section of the forest that isn't as dense as the ones before, Murata spots a demon slayer near the curves of a bark from a faraway tree.

"Look, there's a demon slayer over there." One of Murata's members points out. He squints his eyes. "Might be a rank 10."

Iena regards the boy near the tree. His posture looks slumped. His head is tilted and his sword is unsheathed in his right hand. The shadows of the tree above him colors his sword an eerie black.

Not like Tanjiro's at all.

"There's something weird about him," Iena voices, frowning.

"She's right. Something's off," Murata agrees. "Draw your swords!"

One of his squad members pins him a tense, disbelief look. "What! Why! He's part of the Demon Corps! It's forbidden to harm other members!" He protests.

Murata glares at him. "Don't you see there's something wrong with him!"

"But-!" No one sees it coming.

The demon slayer pierces his sword through the boy's throat. Where there had been skin, it's now torn muscle and gurgling blood. His hand scrambles for the protruding blade, choke noises through blood and the sword.

Iena's eyes dim to nothing.

The demon slayer slides the sword out of the boy's throat, and he drops to the ground, a puddle of blood and sliced vocal cords.

Iena sees the others' reaction, their watered eyes throbbing, trembled hands that finally drew their swords at the barbaric death of their comrade.

"What the hell!"

"S-S-Soji!"

As if his name was a trigger, a wave of demon slayers suddenly burst through the maze of green plants and tilted trees. Terror and fright are the only expressions on their faces in their rush to escape. A scuffle of limbs elbow each other and thundering feet step on one another.

"WW-What's going on!" Murata's question sweeps above the panic.

"Run! Everyone's killing each other!" One, whoever, wherever, screams their reply.

"Soji! SOJI!"

Too many things are happening at once.

Iena grips her head. Too many things…

All the tumultuous chaos is knocking her head dead.

Iena twists her head to the bushes where the stampede of demon slayers ran from. That lukewarm feeling of humans turns cold when she sees a horizon of demon slayers, similar to the one that killed the boy, rise, blood a slick sheen on their swords.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Murata spits.

All the killer demon slayers spring from their place in a rapid rampage. Some demon slayers, namely Murata's crew, stay to fight back. A way to keep them at bay for everyone else to escape, but Iena can't. She sees it now. The spider web strings, finer than the ones she's encountered, are strung to their bodies, especially their arms.

The demons are manipulating them like puppets to kill their comrades. She knew their movements were strange and now she sees why. Iena's eyebrows bend and she hisses in desperation.

"The strings!" Iena shouts. "They're being controlled by the strings!" She turns to Murata who stands there with unmoving feet. "You have to cut the strings!"

"What strings! I don't see any strings!"

Sweat rains down her forehead, and it burns the slash on her cheek. "I'll- I'll show you!"

At a moment's notice, a puppetted demon slayer leaps towards her, but she already centered herself and found her concentration. Don't dwell on the bloody limb or the boy who's throat got pierced. Remove the shudders.

He brings his sword down and she dodge curves him. Another slash from a different puppet demon slayer has her jump out the way. Duck. Another evasion from a swift slash.

Murata witnesses, jaw dropped in astonishment. "H-How are you dodging like that?"

Iena hastily steps out the way from another glistening strike. "Don't worry about that right now! Please focus, cut the strings and save your comrades! The strings are above their head, wrapped around the tree!" She asserts.

But there are no more comrades to save.

In one slash from a puppet's sword, the boy with the striped _haori's_ abdomen opens up, blood a sickly waterfall.

"Hijire!"

Silenced by a sword through his temple.

A sword plunge to the back. One.

A slash from collarbone to chest. Two.

The body counts are mounting.

She's seeing bloodshed all over again.

**_"Don't look!" "Don't look!" "Don't look!" "Don't look!" "Don't look!"_**

**_"Don't look!"_**

**_"Don't look!"_**

**_"Don't look!"_**

"I'M TRYING NOT TO!" Iena's red-faced shriek rings out from her mind to the trees to the moonless sky. There's a horrid heat to her eyes, a squelch to her mouth as she bites her tongue to hold what the heat is doing to her eyes.

A sudden sweaty palm clasps her wrist. It lurches her awake.

"Let's go, let's go!" Murata shouts, dragging her away in an unstable run.

"But your comrades!"

"They're a lost cause!"

One cursory glance behind her, the corpses scattered on the forest floor like fall leaves, Iena doesn't question and shares the same haste with Murata. The several other demon slayers who fled the scene lay on the ground a bloody mess. And the screams and cries for help, they're so high-pitched and horrific, it's swallowing her ears.

"Shit, shit! Everyone's dying!" Murata quivers in his run. "Why don't those damn crows call some pillars out here!"

Iena can't blame him for his choked up curses. She can't berate him for his language. He's scared. Begonias are a downpour over his head, her head too. It's so overwhelming. Seeing such pretty flowers imbued with a gory atmosphere…

"Komi-oba…." Iena calls her aunt's name composed and tries hard not to let a sob take over her aunt's name.

"How are they even being controlled like this!" Murata bellows.

"From the strings!" Iena yells, annoyance extremely clear.

"What strings are you seeing! Where is it coming from then!"

Iena can't answer it. She wants to say from the trees again, but how were they able to wrap a heap of strings around so many trees?

Murata blocks an incoming attack with his blue sword, a corpse of a fallen demon slayer attacking this time. The friction casts faint sparks against Murata's face. "Even the dead are being controlled!"

Iena dodges a few demon slayers, dead and alive, living and lifeless. She can't afford to be slashed by any of the swords. Her neck and cheek are already a bloody wreck.

"Where are the strings really coming from!"

Small dots drift in Iena's peripheral vision. She turns her head at an angle, a cautious precaution to not get in his way. On the corpse, she sees small, hairy spiders. The spiders scuttle in strategic directions, leave streaks of strings, then surge from the arms down. Some of them jump onto Murata's uniform and crawl along his spine.

"The spiders! It's the spiders!" Iena nearly tackles Murata to squish, swat and kill the spiders hooked onto his back. She smacks his back, hands vermillion -like Nezuko's hair tips- from spider blood. It paints Murata's back the same color, guts wet and squishy.

"What!" Murata finally pushes the corpsed slayer off of him.

"The spiders are the ones attaching the strings," Iena says tensely, too focused on vanquishing them. She kills spider after spider, but her actions continuously prove useless. Swarms of spiders flow in the more she kills them.

"What the hell!" He panics.

The spiders spread to her sleeves and up to her sullied shirt, and she promptly lets go of Murata. No matter the poise she tried so hard to fulfill throughout everything, this, spiders in unified lines running up and down her body, knitting string shackles, this- is _scary_.

Iena finally gives into fear.

She screams.

The strings pluck her up like birds seizing breakfast.

Murata shoots his head up and Iena from up high, can see him drenched in his own fear. The spiders leave her body, their task done, and they scurry off to endanger more people that their hairy, scrawny legs can catch.

A few of the spiders linger above her, beside her. Then the whispers come back deathly poetic.

_Pretty, pretty girl,_

_Sheltered from the world,_

_How tight should I squeeze,_

_To make you **bleed**._

The strings squeeze with unmanageable force, a pain that her body can't even understand.

Iena screams till her lungs cave and shrivel **because the pain, it burns, it really burns. **Each scream meant more pain, tight, tight, she can slowly feel the strings saw through her skin.

She doesn't look down. Not because of the height or the beds of cobwebs with larger spiders resting from their bloodshed.

It's because she knew Murata left her. She felt his presence flee, instantly, and now he's out of her range. No more of that tepid feeling.

All she feels is nothing. She can't tell if it's from the demons' aura, from the strings torturous pain, from the fact that everyone has slaughtered each other below, or her numb, pensive state.

Demon slayers.

They really are the worst.

_Bonds. What are yours?_

Lost under the moonless, soulless sky, her blood spills into the night.

* * *

_"Shit, she's gone! Blood on the tree and ground! She's dead, she's definitely dead. And I... why won't they send pillars! AAAHH-"_

_"I'm here for support! My name is Kamado Tanjiro, Rank 10."_

_"R-rank...10…? Rank 10...?! Why didn't they send a damn pillar?! It's pointless! Demon slayers from Rank 10 can't do shit, no matter how many of them co-UGH!"_

_"Inosuke!"_

_"Damn annoying. If things are pointless, then you're pointless. Now, hurry up and explain, coward!"_

_"Ouch! A-after receiving our commands…! F-from the c-c-crow, ten members including myself came here! But when we entered the forest, the demon slayers started to, to….kill each other!"_

_"What!"_

_"Then the girl I saw-!"_

_"Girl! You saw a girl?!"_

_"Yes."_

_"Please, describe what she looks like!"_

_"S-She, she has white hair on top of her head, the rest some kind of pinkish purple. It's the same for her eyes. She has earrings-"_

_"That's her! That's Mushido!"_

_"...You, y-you know her?"_

_"Yes. She's our friend. We're trying to find her and get her home safely. If you saw her, why isn't she with you?"_

_"...I'm sorry. I-I-I-I'm so sorry. I'm so sooo-rrryy!""_

_"Huh?"_

_"The other members and I, we found her injured. She came along with us, and soon after, that's when everyone started killing each other. We escaped, but she got caught by strings and, shit... and I... I ran! I felt so guilty and went back, but when I got there, she was gone, nothing but blood on the tree and the ground where she got taken!"_

_"YOU SHITTY COWARD!"_

_"Inosuke, stop punching him!"_

_"Get off me, Monjiro! He left her to die!"_

_"We don't know that! She can still be alive, I know it! Hitting him isn't going to solve anything!"_

_"...If she's dead…"_

_"I'm sorry...!"_

_"...You are?"_

_"Murata..."_

_"Murata-san, what you did is disgraceful. How can you call yourself a demon slayer if you're not willing to help people! Demon slayers are to protect others from harm, not abandon them! If our friend is dead, I really won't forgive you!"_

_"Sorry...Sorry…"_

* * *

She's cut, bleeding, bruised, and strangely alive.

Miraculously, the strings broke as she bled out and, even when sliced and slashed and scratched up, she was able to at least grab onto one branch when she fell. But the branch snapped and again she landed on her back, teeth crackled, and pain flashing red behind her eyelids.

Her fall was cushioned by a corpse. She was right. Everyone below was dead. When she sat up, her body just creaked in many different pains: a burning sting from the machete to the slits and slashes, an aching pain that ripples from her back to her legs, and a sharp pain coming from her chest.

Yet, Iena trudged away from the scene, limpsy and far from intact, but she still has the stamina to move.

Now she roams around the forest aimlessly. A search for an exit has been long gone, the intent to escape forgotten by how much pain she's in. The call of her aunt isn't a guiding source anymore. Maybe a pitiful plea. She's tired of breathing in and out. It's not doing her any favors. It just upsets whatever hurts in her chest area.

"Did I- did I break a rib?" Iena wheezes out, hand sprawled on her left ribcage. The impact from the fall was harsh despite the corpse that took the brunt of the fall. She's surprised she hasn't broken anything else if that's the case.

Is this the pain the boys felt when they had broken ribs?

Iena narrows her eyes. It's pointless to think about that now. She's lost, wounded, and abandoned in a demon-infested mountain. Home is a hopeless word. Demon slayers a hateful name. Bonds so lonely. She has an insuperable longing to fall, such a rotten feeling of helplessness.

One of the worst kinds of pain.

She promised herself she wouldn't feel like this anymore years ago. Komi, too. Her aunt always made sure she would never feel helpless.

Iena doesn't believe she'll be able to see her aunt. Too much blood is leaving her string wounds and the dark is becoming dizzier. She chokes on a watery laugh.

She can't believe she went out of her way to help a demon slayer, befriend them, just to have something like this happen to her. She hates them. She'll hate them until she drains out and falls forever. No, even past the afterlife, in soul and in spirit.

A flash and she sees Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, sparkling like the golden chrysanthemums she saw when her heart accepted all of them.

Once gone, she looks into the sky, the clouds still denying the moon any sight or light for it to send.

Iena can't hate them, she can never hate them. This hate is a lie, and she knows it's her fear talking. They're the ones who helped her turn her back on hatred. If it ends right here, she can't relish in that hope anymore.

She's spent seven years walking by the side of a bottomless chasm, jumping from stone to stone. Sometimes, she tries to leave the narrow path and join the swirling mainstream of life, but she always finds herself drawn back towards the chasm's edge, and there she'd walk until the day she finally falls.

But, they pulled her away, not into the stream but safely by their sides.

It's not fair.

Blood continues to leak from her crisscrossed wounds. Will she join her family soon?

Not here. She doesn't want to join them here.

At first, Iena believes she's fooling herself to feel a sudden warmth, even warmer than the tepid aura sense she gets when another human is near.

It's real and it grabs her. Iena stows all the fear away and faces the dark path ahead of her. The night clouds disappear and the moon streams light across the black forest. Her heart runs at the same pace of the person she hears sprinting towards her, the warmth very near.

The moon shines brighter. "I finally found you, Fujido-san!"

Iena's arms fall limp to her sides. She blinks until she can't blink anymore. Her voice, when she speaks, holds infinite, heavy gravity. "Kamado-kun…?"

As if the moon had been following him all along, Tanjiro comes into view, footsteps a muddy screech into the dirt as he breaks his run. He pants before a horrified look comes to his face. "Fujido-san!"

He dashes to her and the vast amount of moonlight shapes his hair like fire setting the night alive.

His red eyes look her up and down in horrible shock. "Your wounds! Did one of the demons do this to you!" He grasps her shoulders with a force that makes her look up at him, bright red cheeks and strands of hair stuck to her sweaty temple.

Tanjiro examines her, seeing all the sliced up bleeding wounds. "These look like wounds from the strings, and it dug into your skin really bad."

Iena stands there, struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything because she cried out for hope and hope really came. Her senses scream that yes, he's real, you haven't left just yet, but she still pulls the front of his demon slayer uniform, the one she's been condemning not too long ago.

Tanjiro stops at her abrupt action, not bothered at all, but mainly worried at the blank look in her eyes.

But then her eyes start to shimmer like the strong swaying wisteria trees back in Tanomozawa.

Iena parts her lips. His skin has heat, his eyes red and compassionate. This is Tanjiro.

If Tanjiro is here, that means the others, they're…

Hope really did come. They pulled her away from the edge once again.

She loses her air all over again.

She falls, but not into the blood-soaked ground, but into warm checkered arms. Tanjiro rests her head in the crook of his elbow, face sweaty and still horrified by the many injuries on her body.

"Fujido-san!"

Iena sucks in her lips to stop her mouth. It keeps wobbling, uncontrolled and messy. "K-Kado-kun," Her voice turns wet and babyish. Behind her eyes, heat begins to rise. "mado-kun….Ka….."

Her head starts to hurt, but in the most freeing way possible. Death isn't looking at her in the face, but Tanjiro is.

"Amado…ado." Uneven hiccups butcher his name repeatedly, sobs tremble and high-pitched. Then on the final hiccup, she gets it right. "Tanjiro-kun…"

Iena cries her whole face wet.

She cried out every pain and hurt her body endured the whole night. The tears that wanted to come out at the gore that haunted her other thoughts, the angry tears at being left behind to die. So many things in so many tears. Even when she feels like she cried out everything, it won't stop, just wave after wave of tears. The tears are blinding her from Tanjiro's face, but it doesn't matter. He's here, alive, and that means she'll be alive too.

She'll be able to see everyone.

Iena sinks into Tanjiro's _haori_. Tanjiro clutches her shoulders tight and closes his eyes in quiet understanding, a frown on his face made of nothing but sorrow.

As Iena continues to cry, she realizes that at least there's a tomorrow she can cry in.

* * *

_***Petal Falls***_

_Petal #27- Iena's birthday is May 3. Happy belated Iena!_

_Petal #28- Tanjiro has an inkling of what happened to the Fujido clan. He hopes it's not similar to what happened to his family._

_Petal #29- Inosuke really likes acorns for some reason._

_Petal #30- __Zenitsu sporting a man bun, anyone on board?_

_Petal #31- Iena and the man continued to talk for the rest of the ride. His name is Sonshou Hideki. Iena promised she'll make medicine for his welts..._

_Petal #32- Seeing the corpses of many demon slayers, it's a first that Iena actually felt bad for them._

_***No Japanese terms cause I'm pretty sure you guys know what dango, kamis and haori is**_

_**EDIT: yes, Japanese terms 'cause I finally figured out what custom it was when Komi and Nana strike the stones. Sorry about that, guys!**_

***_sekiei- quartz_**

**_*hiuchigane- steel striker_**

**_*kiribi - a purification ceremony where you send someone off by striking a stone with steel so that the sparks fall on them to wish them good luck_**

* * *

**Hi, peeps. ****Wow, this chapter was not Iena's chapter, huh? Maybe the next one will be, hopefully-hmmm. Who knows? I'm already on board with the next chapter soooo...**

**Stay tune folks!**

**Thank you for the love and support of my story. I really appreciate it, honestly. It puts a big smile on my face when I receive reviews, favs, and follows.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to know what you thought about it.**

**And don't forget about the fanart if you want to see it and then imagine how messed up Iena must be looking right now. Jk.**

**NCT out.**


	6. Chapter 6: To Save A Life

**Chapter 6, into the mix.**

**Disclaimer: Kimetsu no Yaiba isn't mine. The rightful owner is Koyoharu Gotoge, or 'Alligator-sensei'**

**Shout out to reviewers ADDBaby & cestlavie! You two are always giving nice, energetic, insightful, reviews and I love it! But seriously, cestlavie, get an account so I can thank for all the good reviews you leave!**

* * *

_**Chapter 6: To Save A Life**_

* * *

**Beta: ZilverHope**

Iena cries her whole body weak and her face dries.

Tanjiro holds her still. His checkered _haori_ is wet, but it's the most tedious thing to worry about. Iena is injured and bloody and her state of mind isn't in the right place at the moment.

Tanjiro clenches his jaw. He feels like he's failing everyone tonight.

He failed Iena.

He failed Komi and Nana.

He failed all those demon slayers, bodies defiled by a treacherous demon he still can't locate.

Tanjiro shuts his trembling eyes.

He braces himself and musters everything he has to keep away all the pressure trying to swallow him whole. He'd promised no harm would come to Iena. He promised that to Komi, to Nana, to himself, but the girl lay in his arms wet with tears and blood. Slashes from the strings had ripped through her clothes and skin, and he heard her wheezes through her crying.

She must've broken a rib, he thinks somberly, slow in opening his eyes. Along with her, he couldn't do anything for the other Demon Slayer members. So many bent and broken and crumpled bodies of people who simply wanted others to live and enjoy the mountain without harm.

Tanjiro's brows hang tense as unease crosses his face. A sense of heavy bitterness is creeping in, and he doesn't know if he can stop it.

Iena looks directly at Tanjiro for the first time since she stopped crying. Through half-lidded eyes, she can see flowers around him, transparent and abundant. But, she doesn't like the flowers that are there.

Red Columbine: _Anxious_

Purple Hyacinth: _Apologetic_

Purple Verbena: _Regret_

Iena puts a hand forward, and the moon strokes it. It grabs his attention.

"It's not your fault.," She waves her moonlit hand. "Don't blame yourself for anything." Tanjiro blinks his eyes wide.

It doesn't only apply to her. His eyes tell of the turmoil that blooms into flowers she sees. Like her, he's seen a lot tonight. Like her, it's trampling his mind. Which one can handle the bruises better, that's not important. They're both just bruised.

Iena slowly sits up with Tanjiro's assistance. No matter how much it hurts, she can't anchor Tanjiro here. He has to go and kill the demons committing all of this. Zenitsu and Inosuke too.

Iena jolts. "Where's Agatsuma-kun and Hashibira-kun?"

Tanjiro doesn't answer just yet. His hands flutter around the inside of his haori, then bring out a few bandage cloths. "You're seriously injured, Fujido-san. We have to handle your injuries first."

Iena takes it from him and wipes her neck. This slit, shockingly enough, was the one that was bothering her the most. It's the one bleeding the most, and the sweat settled in the gap stings way worse than the rest of her. It does some good. Iena also feels a slight tingly feeling the more she cleans it. She looks at the cloth and beyond it is a salve seeped into the cloth. I doesn't burn at all. She tilts her head.

"My master," Tanjiro starts. "He's the one who made it and gave it to me. It's the best." He smiles, but it's small. He doesn't have the right to smile, not in a dire situation like this.

"Hmm" Iena continues to wipe her wounds. Master. It must be the person who trained him, she figures. When she's done wiping and bandages some of her wounds, her body looks relatively better despite the blood still falling from it.

"I'm sorry. That's all I have," Tanjiro says, eyes near closing again. Iena shakes her head.

"It's ok. It's better than nothing at all," She replies, holding the bloodied cloths to her chest.

Iena doesn't like Tanjiro's expression. Even when she told him not to blame himself, he still has his face creased in frustration. Iena flattens her lips. Just like how Tanjiro wishes to ease her injuries, she wants to ease his mind.

But, how can she when she's not completely here herself.

Iena glances at the red cloths in her vermillion hands. She has to remind herself for a moment that this is spider blood from when she was killing those spiders for…

A bitter taste lines her mouth and anger flickers inside her. The boy, Murata, who left her behind in an act of blatant cowardice. She turns her head to the side, disgusted, as if the boy was there himself, and she'd rather look at a horse's behind than at him.

Tanjiro grips her shoulder. "Why are you angry all of a sudden, Fujido-san?"

Iena really shouldn't be alarmed. Tanjiro's keen sense of smell is creepy sometimes. Should she tell him about Murata?

"Is it because of Murata-san?"

"Oooh, stop that!" She whines, shaking her fists at him. Tanjiro leans back, confused. Iena's face jumps a little. "How do you know him?"

Tanjiro briefs her on how he and Inosuke stumbled upon Murata sitting on the ground, very finicky and distraught. Knowing what he did, he stammered his way through an explanation, and Inosuke punched him for it.

Good job, Hashibira-kun. Good, good job, Iena approves behind a neutral face.

"But, I'm so glad I found you," Tanjiro ends with a relieved smile.

There's a certain sense of warmth, a fullness of soul and breath that is thankfulness. Iena returns it with a smile of her own. Once again, she can't hold back the tears, and she cries like a downpour of rain. She feels Tanjiro gently pull her closer and his murmurs of, 'It's ok,' and his words of, 'I'm here, you're here. We're both here.', brings more tears to her eyes. But that's what tears are for, right? To wash away the fear and cool the hate.

"Thank you," She says, rubbing away some leftover tears. "Thank you, Tan-" Iena's sentence fizzles out. She has never called the boys by their first names. Despite their stay at the estate around four weeks, she's been accustomed to addressing them by their last names. They never really complained about it nor did she really complain about their names for her (since Tanjiro was the only one who would get it right. Zenitsu and Inosuke gladly ignored.)

Even though they're friends, it's still a little weird to say his first name all of a sudden.

Iena throws the sentence away.

She peeks over Tanjiro's shoulder to Nezuko's box on his back. "Thank you too, Nezuko."

Iena hears a tiny scratch as a response, and she smiles even further.

The moment soothes all of them somewhat, but it's soon lost under the awful stench Tanjiro smelt several times before. He covers his nose, and grouses, "There's that foul stench again!"

Iena notes his behavior, but doesn't question it. Not long after, she feels a different demon's aura like heavy rocks to her shoulders. She sucks in her lips, allows herself to be afraid, then flips it over by sheer force of will. She needs to see clearly enough to take stock of the situation.

"We can't stay here. We have to go!" Tanjiro focuses back on her.

Iena nods. She crushes the pain and pushes herself to stand, but Tanjiro unexpectedly lifts her up and dashes down the way he came from. Startled, it takes her time to register what he just did, but after she snaps out of her daze, she firmly loops her arms around his neck to secure herself.

Iena raises her head to meet his eyes. "Can you tell me where Agatsuma-kun and Hashibira-kun are now?"

"I'm clueless to where Zenitsu is. He ran in before Inosuke and I could, and Inosuke is helping Murata-san fend off our controlled companions."

This doesn't help her worries be less unfounded. "They're being controlled by-"

"The strings from the spiders. I figured that out too," Tanjiro finishes. "But there's someone who's controlling the strings. I believe the demon who's doing this is the one with the sharp, horrible stench." Tanjiro increases his speed at his statement.

Iena contemplates. It's most likely an accurate speculation. She can't smell what Tanjiro smells, but she trusts him. While she's on scent, she wonders what her scent was for Tanjiro to find her. An obvious factor was blood, but maybe she has a distinct smell to him?

"How were you able to find me?" She asks meekly.

"My nose!" He replies with a smile, not upbeat the way she's used to, but a smile nonetheless.

"What did you smell?"

Tanjiro pauses for a solid three seconds, then speaks, "Blood." Iena expects that. "Fear, sadness, giving up." Iena's face slacks at the descriptions Tanjiro gives. All those words, that's exactly how she felt before he came. Home was lay forgotten. Those emotions kept her company from the solitary of a bloody night. None other would come to her.

"Wisteria too."

Iena rolls her head up and stares at Tanjiro. "Huh?"

"You always smell like wisteria. As soon as I sniffed that scent, I knew it was you. I ran as fast as I could."

Iena did not expect that. To Tanjiro, she smells like wisteria. It makes her feel a little better. Her troubled emotions hadn't snuffed her out, she wasn't only a hull of hopelessness.

Iena then eyes Tanjiro. "Are you okay?" She says it like a fact.

The question hits Tanjiro the way it shouldn't. He meets her gaze, worry in those wisteria eyes, and he purses his lips **because he must endure no matter what.** As the eldest of now only one, he must.

"I'll be okay! I just want to find these demons, slay them, and take you home to Komi-san and Nana-san!"

Iena isn't satisfied with his answer, but it's not the time to question his mental state, and the thought of reuniting with her aunt and Nana-san consoles her. The lashing wind from Tanjiro's run cools her sweat and traces, only for a second, her face calm. The breeze isn't intrusive at all. It actually winds her down and, just for a bit, keeps her relaxed from all the madness closing in.

It's cut short once she hears the clinks and sparks of crossing swords. Iena clutches Tanjiro's neck tightly as they happen upon Inosuke and Murata still defending themselves from a small horde of puppet demon slayers.

Inosuke, with his nimble movements, dispatches three of them at once, and they fall to the ground like three stacks of hay. He toes around two of them, catches a strike from behind between his teeth-like blades and with some savage beast strength, flips the whole body over his shoulder with his two swords alone.

Iena is stunned.

"Inosuke, don't do that to our companions!" Tanjiro scolds him.

"Then what do you want me to do, huh!" Inosuke darts his head to Tanjiro.

Inosuke sees them and bolts their way in a snap; Iena was worried he was going to tackle both her and Tanjiro. He stops a few inches in front of them as Tanjiro lays supporting hands on her back to help her stand on her feet.

"You found Hoshiro!" Iena can't help but smile at how happy Inosuke sounds, wrong name and all.

"Hashibira-kun," Iena says, and she can't wipe the smile off her face at seeing him and Tanjiro together.

"Shut up, Bukido!" Iena flinches. "Why would you come to a mountain that has demons in it! Are you stupid?! You must be!"

Iena narrows her eyes at him, smile now done and over with. "Well, I came to this demon-infested mountain to get some tree peony to plant a tree, y'know, the one that you destroyed."

Inosuke falters at that. He stiffens and withdraws, and Iena clearly sees it. "Hashibira-kun, no one would've guessed that there'd be demons in this mountain!" Didn't she promise herself she wouldn't blame him?

However, it still doesn't fix how rigid his body looks. "I…"

Inosuke shakes his head wildly. Here, his out-of-place hesitance vanishes, and he balls his fist at Tanjiro "I could've found her much faster than you, but you left me with that shitty coward!"

Iena does not reprimand Inosuke for his potty mouth. Not at all.

"I told you I was going to," Tanjiro states, not really seeing the problem here, which infuriates the boar even more.

Iena moves her face away from the two, and takes in the carnage on the ground, bodies so lifeless, it'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the dead and the living.

Maybe there's no difference anymore.

There's a fraction of a second, in one long blink, the ground is a wooden agari-kamachi swollen with blood, and a similar array of bodies not too far from it, blood dripping huge splatters.

The blink finishes, and she's back around plants, woods, and danger.

However, the talk of a shitty coward has Iena bristle, which Tanjiro and Inosuke quickly notice and freeze in their spots. Iena stomps a path towards Murata, heat in her chest running to her face and eyes fierce with the gradual fall of her vicious eyebrows.

Petunias appear around her face.

Petunia: _Anger_

Murata, who finishes warding off a controlled demon slayer, swivels to Iena and a squeak escapes his lips at her dark face moving in.

"You left me." Murata sees her eyes crack. He backs up. She gets closer.

"I almost died…" Iena quivers. If Tanjiro hadn't found her, it would've been it for her. She'd never see anyone again, and the thought sets her off.

"I almost died you pathetic, disgraceful, no-good coward!" She snaps, her hisses uncontrollable, harsh, and rough. She winces from the insistent pain in her chest, but it doesn't stop her one bit."What worth are you if you're going to do nothing but cower and let people die because of your selfish cause! I'll let him mock you over and over and over again! You deserve it! People like you are why demon slayers are the absolute worst! People like you give them an ugly name!"

Murata, throughout all of it, wilts, words biting away his already crushed pride. "I-I'm truly sorry. I…" He closes his eyes and bows his head.

Once the fire from her mouth dies out, she's left with an exhausted, cold simmer. Then her eyes whiplash to someone who isn't Murata, and the person keeps on walking and becoming smaller, steps like heartbreak, and the deep cracks she leaves foot after foot travel so easily like a rushing river.

"Leaving me like that…" Her throat thickens, and she knows if she keeps yelling, the tears lurking at the corner of her eyes will overflow.

Iena drops her face into her red-stained hands, silent.

Tanjiro and Inosuke witness the whole scene, and the minute they see Iena cup her face, they immediately shoot glares at him.

"Forgive me!" Murata begs.

A runaway slash from a possessed demon slayer cuts Murata's plea. He leaps out the way, and Tanjiro quickly parries the next pair of rampant sword slashes.

Iena breaks away from her hands and dodges the slayer that attacked Murata. She jumps back, steadies her aching ankles and feet, wincing all the while. Everything hurt. She's surprised she's even able to walk let alone jump. Her string wounds are still a runny mess, and she more than likely fractured her ribs.

However, she makes the best of it and, right on time, Tanjiro and Inosuke shield Iena, furiously parrying and blocking all attacks from every side.

"Over here isn't safe!" Tanjiro yells.

"I can see that much!" Inosuke quips.

Tanjiro maneuvers around one of them, disarms the slayer, and gently pushes him aside with natural grace.

Inosuke drops to the ground with a swift, low kick, sweeps one under their feet; the wind from it upturns leaves. Another one towers over him, but he rises with an uppercut to the jaw, teeth clacking all over the place.

"Inosuke, stop that! Some of them are still alive, you can't be too rough!" Tanjiro chides loudly. "We can't harm our allies, dead and al-PUGH!"

Somehow, Inosuke is able to avoid all the rows of sword slashes in strong determination to headbutt Tanjiro in the stomach. "Screw you, Kojiro! Stop denying my fun, dammit!"

"Hashibira-kun, don't do that to him!" Iena deals him a scolding glare.

"But he-!"

"HEY!"

Murata's voice clears the commotion as they all look at him.

"Leave this place to me! Go on ahead!" He declares.

"What the hell? That's some big talk for a shitty coward who pissed his pants!" Inosuke shouts.

"Who said I pissed my pants, you stupid pig! I'm not even talking to you, so shut the hell up!" Murata seethes. "I'm sorry for showing you such an embarrassing side, sorry for not upholding what it is to be a demon slayer! Cutting the threads is the only option here, and I'll definitely be wary of the spiders this time around! There probably will be stronger people being controlled near the demon, so hurry!"

Iena questions the sudden boost of valor, but a nod from Tanjiro has her drop it. The guy's right. It's a waste of time to stay and fight the same pack of slayers.

Tanjiro gives a nod to Murata and grabs both Iena and Inosuke.

Before the three of them can hightail it out, Murata screams above the glistening, sharp cries of swords, "I'm sorry!"

Iena cranes her neck and sees Murata, his jaw clenched and on the verge of tearing up. "I'm sorry! I'll forever be sorry!" He screams again. "I'll definitely make it up to you, no matter what! I'll make it up to you!"

Iena's eyes grow a touch at the fairly righteous statement. A wonderful smile comes to her lips.

"It's okay! I'll never forgive you anyway!" Iena waves goodbye to him and allows Tanjiro to pull her at a fast but steady pace, more than likely to avoid her becoming exhausted and risk aggravating her injuries.

Murata nearly dies by an incoming sword slash, too shocked by the way she so casually rejected his apology for an eternity.

Tanjiro drags a fuming Inosuke. "Fujido -san! You're injured! You have to stay close! I won't allow anything else to happen to you!"

Iena nods absently. She isn't listening to him too well. She's focused on his tan hand over her white. It never came to her, not a wondering speck in the passing weeks, but, why are Tanjiro's hands so rough? It feels like sandpaper, perhaps stone, rough and unfinished, like he had a difficult life and worked twice as hard for everything he has, everything that he is.

Such worn-out hands.

And she's leaking blood on them. She feels ashamed, almost.

Iena waves away the random thought and listens in on Tanjiro and Inosuke bicker their mouths away.

"Damn, I'm gonna punch that shitty coward if it's the last thing I do! I'm gonna sock that guy's face so hard, he won't see it coming!" Inosuke snarls.

"Stop talking about it already!" Tanjiro glares at him.

"He called me a stupid pig, Monjiro!"

"It's Tanjiro!"

Even in the dreary atmosphere, the dismal, horrific situation they're in, her heart feels a million times lighter. The familiar beat of their bicker brings a shallow smile, soon to fade if they run into any other danger, but she'll use this time for it as they forge on, wedge through bushes and plants and thick spider webs like a stick drawing across mud.

Soon, Iena's smile does fade.

"You can't…" A girl, a demon slayer, slick black hair in a pony tail, sweat-bound to her skin. "Don't come near me…."

A red flush of horror strikes her wet cheeks, and she cries, cries, cries for the three bodies she carries in her palm and sword. One eye from the corpse in her palm rolls out of the socket to the ground, and the dirt coats the slimy surface.

"Don't come near me…" Is her tearful beg. "Please don't."

The strings force her to slide her sword out of one of the corpse's neck, slow, the flesh wet and noisy.

"Send a higher rank here quick!" Her possessed arm directs her bloody sword straight at Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Iena. "I'm going to end up killing everyone! Please!" Her tears fall faster. "PLEASE!"

Iena doesn't think she can smile anymore tonight.

She hears Tanjiro suck his breath in as devastation hits him. Even Inosuke reins himself, three witnesses to the hill of blood torn bodies perched sickenly calm behind her. White specks dot them-teeth, Iena terrifyingly realizes. Those are teeth.

_**"Don't look!"**_

Her hands won't cover her eyes.

The strings push her to charge at them, a swoosh of a gleaming dark blue slash. Tanjiro grabs Iena and gathers distance from her.

"So fast!" His words whoosh from his mouth.

The slashes and strikes almost seemed rageful and desperate as the girl wildly throws her sword around.

"Run! You need to run right now! I'm being controlled! These aren't my movements at all!" Iena can see the girl trying her best to resist, but the string's influence overpowers her every time.

A crunching noise takes the cool air. The girl wails louder, and it sinks into their ears so mercilessly.

"Her arms," Iena whispers gravely. "The position that they're in…" Skeletal system, the amalgamation of bones in different lengths, illustrations of the human body from head to toe; it all flies in her head in rapid detail. In the medical books that Yamazaki gifted her, that's, "the humerus, the bone that extends from the shoulder to the elbow. The demon is pulling it back, disrupting the normal muscle movement of the limb. That'll undoubtedly not only displace her arms, but shatter the bones in the process."

Tanjiro hears her explanation, his expression both sympathetic and angry. "The demon is forcing them to move in unnatural ways, it doesn't care if their bones are being broken by it." He squeezes his face. " _This is too cruel._"

Iena violently shudders. She wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even Murata.

The puppet strings give rise to the others from the ground. Tanjiro and Iena gasp.

Their bodies are mangled beyond repair, one slayer's arm is bent multiple times as if to mimic a staircase. Some bones spike out of the skin and clothes. Iena twists her head to see another slayer rising on heavily distorted legs, outside elbows pressed together like a shield above his stomach. A jagged slash runs from his forehead down to his right cheek, fresh and bloody and deep.

It's too much, and it's worse that the ones who are alive **are the ones with the most broken bones.**

"Kill us…" One of them approaches. "K-Kill, please…" His tangled knotted body shakes as the strings pull his arms, Iena sees more of his bones jut out his sleeves from that one movement.

Blood dribbles his forehead- his broken, splintered forehead- and his mouth. He speaks so lowly, only putting what's left of him in his voice, in his want to join the bodies below.

"Kill us…" He coughs, and it sounds like Komi too much for her liking. It hurts Iena's very soul.

"The bones…. within our arms and legs a-a-re…. broken. Insides being pierced- b-by... it. Damaged, broken. Every time I move, the pain, it's t-t-torture. I'd rather die. I need... to die."

What can she say to a man begging for death?

"You got it!" Inosuke says, dashing from behind Iena to the tortured slayer.

"Hold on a sec!" Tanjiro demands. "There has to be a way to save him!"

"You need to shut up with that crap!"" Inosuke screams his reply. "Look at him! He's asking us to kill him!

"But…!"

"But, Kamado-kun…" _There might not be a way to save him._

Or, at least, there's no answer in sight. Tanjiro most likely knows it too.

"Hoshino, Move!"

Inosuke's shouts jar her awake. An incoming slash crashes down, but Iena takes several steps backwards in quick succession. It seems that the attacks are faster than before when she first encountered them with Murata.

They're near Komi's level of speed. She ducks a slice.

"Gugh!" Iena winces and clutches her ribs. She's irritating her wounds yet again. In that slight distraction, the girl rushes towards Iena to stab her in the eye.

"Fujido-san!" Tanjiro pulls Iena towards him, buries her into his _haori _and shoulders as his sword cling-clangs fast counters.

"I'm sorry!" The girl wails again. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore!"

Iena clenches her jaw to an outstanding degree, she can feel her jaw ache from the force. She faces Tanjiro with a desperate frown. "You can't fight like this!"

"You're injured!" He blocks a downward slash. "I can't let anything else happen to you! I don't want to attack them either!"

His resilience is blocking her concern.

A possessed demon slayer manifests by Tanjiro's left shoulder with a throat-cut slash. Iena, in this unraveled moment, knows Tanjiro isn't prepared to block, his sword still busy fending off the black hair girl.

His name is a wild beat in her mind. "Kamado-kun!"

She flings herself backwards, leans all her weight on his shoulders to break his balance. Tanjiro lets out a loud, confused sound at the sudden act. He does exactly what she needs him to do: lose his footing. Hooked by Tanjiro's arm, she feels the inevitable fall against her back, but before they timber to the ground, she pushes away the sword previously aimed at Tanjiro.

The rest is a hot pain across her right hand, and a string of apologies.

Tanjiro and Iena drop to the ground in thuds. Her back bounces off Tanjiro's chest, she hears his small cry of pain mimic her own. All she can do is hope the combined impact of the ground and her weight doesn't do him any harm.

Iena's in a world of pain. She rocked her ribcage because of this, and it definitely confirms that she broke a rib or two. She ignores it, tucks the pain away like a footnote, and scrambles off of Tanjiro as fast as she can.

"Kamado-kun, are you okay? I'm sorry! I-"

He sits up with some light grunts in between. "Your hand."

Iena knows, but she hasn't looked at it yet.

With some reluctance, Iena looks at her right hand.

The blade sliced her hand open clean, the gash pouring copious amounts of blood. There's some dirt in there too. The sight of it has it hurt worse.

She lightly presses her index finger against the center of the cut to flick the dirt out, but pain spirals all across her wrist down to her elbows.

Tanjiro quickly helps her stand and grimaces. "You shouldn't have done that! Your hand!" He takes her hand to get a better look. "Your hand...!" He repeats, regretful, and ashamed.

If she didn't do it, she'd be saying to him, 'Your throat.' She couldn't let that happen. Better her hand than his neck.

"Guys, what the hell are you doing?! This bunch is fast and if we get caught napping, we're done for!" Inosuke deals an upper kick to one of them and sends the sword in their hands flying into the trees.

A blade separates Tanjiro and Iena as they both jump back. "I know that! I'm trying to think of a way to deal with this, so just stop for a sec!" Tanjiro's eyebrows slam together in frustration.

"And you! How are you dodging like that?! You don't know how to fight!" Inosuke points to Iena.

"This is not the time!" She retaliated. "You said for yourself to focus, so focus!" Iena covers her mouth. Why was there so much bite in her words? She flicks her head to Inosuke who grows dreadfully quiet at that. On his end, there's nothing but footsteps, people's cries and sparks.

Stop it, she tells herself firmly. This is no one's fault. Don't let the chaos get to you. She moves her left hand from her mouth.

_But, I'm scared. I want my aunty_. The begonias come and flourish.

The demon slayer girl speeds towards Iena along with the sounds of multiple crunches. "AHH!"

Both of her arms are definitely broken but the strings are still flinging them around. Iena cringes. That's too much suffering to handle.

"Watch out!" She hollers, unwilling hands aiming at Iena's chest. Iena curves to the right and appears behind the girl.

Iena blinks as she strikes an idea. "When the other demon slayers rose from the ground, it was very slow." That was for the others before them as well. Their attacks were fast, but when they stood to attack, they were slow. Maybe if she pushes the girl enough to hit the ground, that'd buy some time for Tanjiro to think of something. The girl is the most active out of all the possessed slayers.

"I don't mean to do this, but…" Iena pushes the girl from behind, hard enough for her to crash to the ground and knock the sword out her hand. She tears her eyes away from the pained face the girl makes as she lands directly on her broken arms and cries.

However, little screeches and squeals follow after, but not from her.

Iena focuses on the girl's back, it was smeared with blood because of her hand. The spiders on her body, most likely in the middle of attaching more threads, scatter and whimper down the girl's body. Scared, Iena describes it. It's the opposite of how they were originally. The way they crawled on people, simple and uniformed. Now they run, unclear in which direction they should scatter.

What are they running away from?

Iena grunts. This is a chance. The girl still has threads wrapped around her limbs, but at least they're relaxed and she no longer has her sword.

She flips her head to the two boys. "Kamado-kun, Hashirabira-kun! One of you, come cut the strings off her! The spiders left her body!"

"What?!" Tanjiro exclaims. He blocks a series of side attacks before it ends with him redirecting one attack away from him.

The demon slayer girl behind her already starts to rise, albeit slowly just like Iena figured. She interferes, pushing the demon slayer girl back to the ground and holding her down by her back. "Quick!"

"Gladly!" Inosuke dashes over.

The threads attached to her arms now tug at them ferociously, as if the demonic perpetrator knows exactly what's happening and is desperate.

Iena wishes she could cut it herself, but it seems only Nichirin swords can accomplish that. These strings destroyed her machete, after all, so it has to be.

Yet, she was still able to touch without anything happening to her, but these strings are thicker and stronger than the cobweb of thin strings she met with before.

The girl weeps as the threads pull at her arms harder.

Reaching out with her bloody hand, Iena grasps the strings yanking on the girl's right arms and pulls it down.

It breaks.

Iena pauses. So does everything else around her.

Her machete chipped on contact. The threads broke it apart, minced both that and her basket as if they were vegetables, and these were done but the thinner, weaker strings.

The strings are limp in her bloody hand. They cling to her as closely as her own skin.

"There!" Inosuke severs all the strings on the girl's body. Iena continues to stare at her hand, mystified.

"Oi, Shintaro! One is completely down!" Inosuke informs Tanjiro.

"Ok! I think I have an idea!" The situation is becoming less bleak now that the demon slayer girl has been saved.

Distantly aware, Iena remains transfixed on the threads in her hand until the girl underneath rustles and sniffles, still laid prone.

"Oh…!" Iena takes her other hand off her back, then helps her lay on it instead. "Are… you okay?" She asks uncertainly.

The girl sniffles once more, a few hiccups thrown in there. "Y-Yes." The girl peers at Iena with blurred brown eyes. "Thank you. Thank you so much." The girl quivers and sobs against the red forest floor.

Iena looks downcast. Bias whisked away, this is a girl first, arms snipped and snapped out of place. This isn't a demon slayer now, just a girl.

A girl that can at least see another tomorrow like her.

"You idiot!"

"What?" Iena flinches, startled by Tanjiro running past her, a puppet demon slayer fast in pursuit.

"Why are you running around in circles like that?! Quit fooling around!" Inosuke stomps his feet.

"Wait, Hashibira-kun. He's leading him…" Iena watches closely, joined by the girl who tilts her head to the side and up to watch.

Tanjiro keeps his speed as the boy chases after him. One second, Tanjiro is running away, the next, he's running to his attacker.

"What is he doing now?!"

Iena wonders the same, definitely after she sees him tackle the demon slayer and seize him by the waist.

"Total Concentration…" Tanjiro murmurs.

"Total Concen-wha?" Iena squints her eyes.

They all watch in astonishment when Tanjiro effortlessly lifts the boy up and throws him into the tree.

"Unbelievable strength," The girl mutters.

Iena quickly connects the dots and smiles. "Good thinking, Kamado-kun."

As expected, the strings become tangled into the tree, which leaves the surprised boy hanging by the threads. He found a way to restrict his movements.

"All right!" Tanjiro smiles. "You're tangled in the tree like I planned!"

A minute passes in silence.

Then: "What kind of trick is that?! I wanna do it too!"

Inosuke chucks his swords aside, something that he definitely shouldn't do right here, right now.

"Nah…!" Iena's mouth gapes, a strangled noise of someone getting punched in the lungs. "You can't throw your swords aside like that! What if that guy stabs you while you're doing it! At least get rid of his sword!"

"...He's also not doing it for the right reasons," The girl speaks up.

"Oh yeah, that too," Iena agrees.

Even so, without precaution, Inosuke is able to copy Tanjiro's stunt with ease. Seeing it, overwhelming relief rushes through her. Tanjiro and Inosuke should be able to take care of the rest.

Iena puts her gaze back on the girl. The girl recollects herself, now breathing at a steady and safe pace. She trembles, from pain or fear, both, it isn't a priority for Iena to decipher. She doesn't dare touch her arms, she just lets her rest after experiencing such a terrifying ordeal.

Yes. The demons made her kill others. Worse than watching others be killed.

Iena flattens her lips. She doesn't know where to put her gaze when she looks at her. The way she lays, Iena's spot, it's the same as when she sits on Komi's bed, spooning Komi medicine, wishful words of how she'll cure her from whatever she's going through.

"Are you okay?" Iena pricks up, and forces herself to look at the girl.

No, she's not, but the girl isn't any better.

"You're troubled," She observes.

Iena furrows her brows. "I am," she admits. "By everything tonight."

By the girl's face, teary-eyed and agonized, she feels the same way.

"O-Ozaki. My name is Ozaki," The girl says.

"Iena," she returns.

"That's a pretty name." Ozaki gives a feeble smile.

"Your name sounds like a guy's name." Ozaki frowns at that. "It's still a nice name."

"Is that a compliment?" She mumbles. Ozaki ignores and instead attempts to sit up.

"Here." Iena uses her non-bloodied hand to properly guide her. She doesn't want to stain the girl's back with any more of her blood. Plus, her hand hurts like she stuck it in a hornet's nest.

They watch Tanjiro and Inosuke rally the other demon slayers and perform the same technique. Halfway, Ozaki turns to Iena and asks, "Are they your friends?"

Iena replies with great certainty, and an Inosuke-like pump of her nose. "Yes."

Ozaki giggles. "They're really strong if they're able to do that."

Iena smiles, oddly proud. "They are. I owe them a lot. They're one of the best things to ever happen to me." She says this bloodied, cut up, and she knows without a doubt that if she had never met them, she wouldn't be on this mountain.

Her smile stays, possibly growing wider as Inosuke struts and boasts about doing the move better than Tanjiro while Tanjiro insists not to be rough while doing it.

"Thank you," Ozaki says. Iena sees tears coming from the corners of her eyes, shiny eyelashes from so many tears. "It hurts so much, to see yourself killing someone when it's not you." She ends it looking at her dirty hands, other people's blood congealed to it.

But it's not her fault. It's no one's fault.

"I'm just glad you're not suffering anymore." Iena's not sure if she wants to be seen as a savior. She doesn't really deserve the title, especially if people think she isn't worth saving.

She stops herself, and looks at Tanjiro and Inosuke. It'd be complete if Zenitsu was here.

She can't finish that thought. There are two contradictions walking around in front of them.

"Your arms," Iena points to them. Ozaki looks, "it'll take a while for them to heal."

"I know," She replies.

"Are you okay with that? What if you can never move them again?"

She sniffs a little, her tears not dried up as yet. "I'm still alive, right?"

Scathed, but still alive. "Right."

The leaves in the trees where the slayers hang shift, and from afar, Iena can detect the strings come alive, namely the ones attached to their heads.

She can already foresee the outcome.

It leads her to hop on her feet and shout until her broken ribs curl into her lungs. "Kamado-kun, Hashibira-kun, Their heads! THEIR HEADS!"

It happens when the last word tumbles from her mouth.

SNAP

SNAP

SNAP

SNAP

Iena can only stare at the twisted heads of the people in the trees with skin torn necks. She closes her eyes, presses the heels of her hands -blood be damned- to her eyes until she sees stars.

"Aa-AAHH!" Ozaki screams.

Tanjiro's harsh gasp resounds the forest.

Inosuke takes a couple steps back.

The four teens sit there dumbly amongst four hanging corpses with snapped necks. All of them. Still hardly breathing statues.

Iena takes her hands away from her eyes. Death. Why must she see so much death again? Raw bodies, crooked necks, why?

"Look out!" Inosuke bellows.

Iena spins to face Ozaki. A swoosh, the sound of a blade creeps in on them. Iena looks into Ozaki's brown eyes, big and light like chestnut seeds. The sound of a blade disappears and the sound of flesh replaces it. Iena still holds Ozaki's eyes, chestnut seeds dull, broken, and closing.

She drops to the ground, sword impaled into her head.

Iena knows that sword. It's Ozaki's sword.

Her gaze runs deep into her blood, numb.

"Dammit!" Inosuke curses. "Now everyone's dead!"

Iena stands rigid in front of Ozaki's body draining blood. Her chest alternates between hurting, breathing, and choking as she inhaled through her nose. Ozaki's at the edge of her vision- this girl she was speaking to minutes before, telling her how grateful she is to be alive- head open and dead.

Iena walks past her.

_"Kuchido, where are you going?"_ The distant voice of Inosuke says. Iena walks faster. _"You too, Pachiro?" _Faster. A faint sound of crickets chirping around her feet, a tall empty tree far removed from the others.

Iena lays her back against the tree. She drags her body down into an uneven sit, head and body at a slight tilt.

She sits there. Like the tree, she's far removed from it all.

* * *

It's then her fragile cocoon is disturbed by a horizon of beautiful petunias. They float in the dark and go to rest on the brown box, his checkered back, and his red hair. There's so much of it, it fills the forest clearing.

Tanjiro has petunias of his own

* * *

They leave not too long after.

Iena continues on, mouth trembling and head bent. There is nothing else to do. She's tired, mentally exhausted, and weary of seeing too many people bleed tonight. It's why she let Tanjiro carry her as they fly through the forest.

Tanjiro's petunias have died down, but Iena can still feel the fury from him. This is the first time she's seen his anger.

She remembers what he told her weeks before.

_'I feel sadness, I feel sorrow, I feel anger, and it hurts when I see people in pain. But, for what I do, I linger on those emotions, I can get others and myself killed. I let myself feel these emotions, but I'm slowly learning how to move on from them because I know what has to be done…'_

He's struggling to move on from his anger, and she doesn't blame him. Even Inosuke, who revived his old self quicker than them, took a couple steps back, humorless and shook.

Tonight is taking a toll on everyone.

By Iena's sense, of course it isn't going to end. A demon's aura, that unnerving, sick presence, a fortress pushing against her body. It's strong, just like hours ago when their enemy, the sun, was still out. There's more than one the way they're heading.

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro calls.

"I detected it way before you did!" He draws his swords. "My blades are ready for some slicing!"

Iena parts her lips. "Wait…" She focuses, squint for better accuracy. The huge figure they're approaching looks strange. A few more steps in from Tanjiro's fast feet, Iena's face drops.

"There's no head," she says slowly.

"Huh?" Tanjiro looks at her.

"The demon doesn't have a head!" She repeats, a tad bit frantic.

"No way! You don't know what you're talking about!" Inosuke dismisses and charges ahead of them. Iena holds on as Tanjiro swiftly follows him.

Six trees and three bushes down the line, Tanjiro with Iena in tow stop at the sight of a frozen Inosuke gawking at a gigantic, decaying body with no head. His arms are spider legs carved as two sharp claws. His tattered clothes are loose on his veiny body, and somehow, he's more intimidating without a head than with.

However, aside from his missing head, this demon is different.

"It's not only people being controlled," Iena whispers, staring intensely at the strings hooked on his entire body.

"You were right," Tanjiro says above her.

"He has no head! He doesn't have a weak spot! How can we slash something that isn't there?!" Inosuke panics. He points erratically at the thing, which throws Tanjiro and Iena for a loop. They haven't seen Inosuke ever panic like this. "What do I do, what do I do?!"

"Calm down, Inosuke!" Tanjiro tells him. He gently sets Iena down. "Fujido-san, please hide so you don't get hurt."

Iena can only nod. She'll be no use in this, and she won't fool herself into thinking she can be. "Please, you two, be careful."

Tanjiro nods and Iena scurries off to find a bush to hide.

Once in a good hiding spot, Iena scans the grotesque being once more. This is what demon slayers have to go up against. Iena frowns.

That's the worst.

"Ouch," Iena winces and looks at her right hand. It just had to sting at the most inopportune times... she doesn't regret the cut at all. This slash saved a friend's life.

Or maybe that's what she wants to believe.

Tanjiro is a demon slayer, a strong one at that, and he probably could have blocked that attack targeting his throat with his sharp reflexes. Did she just let herself get cut for no reason and dress it up as saving him? Maybe that's why he got a little upset with her.

She really doesn't deserve the title of savior.

(-**Ozaki's head is dango, the sword the stick**-)

She really doesn't.

Iena gives her attention back to the fight only to see Inosuke knotted in spider strings, struggling to get out. She nearly calls out his name, ready to feel the pain of shaken, broke ribs, but Tanjiro came to help him and swipe back at the demon.

Iena loses the tension in her face, mouth, and body. It's detrimental for her to keep shouting. They're capable, they're trained for this, she convinces herself.

Worry is still eating away at her.

"Listen!" Alarmed by Tanjiro's exploding shout, she pays close attention to the fight.

"No more of this! No more senseless deaths! Fujido-san, you, I won't allow anyone else to die tonight!" He faces Inosuke, his words a marching fury. "Stop running off all the time to do things yourself! We have to do this together, Inosuke! Let's fight this battle together, let's think together, let's work together to bring this demon down!"

Words said through frustration, it still quells her worry a little bit. From here, she can tell Tanjiro's words, while angry, has an effect on Inosuke, and the boy is willing to be cooperative. Tanjiro and Inosuke will defeat the demon for sure.

_It's your fault_

Iena pauses. A woman's voice, dark and furious.

_My spiders won't listen to me anymore! You scared them!_

_IT'S YOUR FAULT!_

The giant demon diverts his attention from Tanjiro and Inosuke to her. Iena stiffens. There's no doubt that the woman condemning Iena in her ears is the perpetrator.

Scared them away. She remembers them scuttle away in fright from- Iena shuts her eyes briefly, her mouth shivering.

How did she scare them away?

The purple-body demon trudges closer and closer to her. Iena takes several steps back, full attention on the demon who's spider claws horrifyingly shimmer underneath the moon.

"Fujido-san!" Tanjiro cries.

Iena runs out the way as the claw crashes the ground where she previously was. Out of the bushes into the spacious area, she continues to keep her speed, knowing the demon is hot on her heels.

Iena knows the demon woman is close. She feels more than one aura up ahead, more to the right to be more accurate, and it's really dense. The boys must feel it too, or smell it, in Tanjiro's case.

The woman's voice echoes again.

_Why won't you die?! Stubborn! The sword, now this!_

Sword?

(-**Ozaki's chestnut eyes close, blood in the wind**-)

Iena's haunting realization squeezes her chest tight like an unforgiving rope. She clamps her mouth with her left hand and tries not to kill her breathing with loud whimpers and hiccups.

That sword was meant for her.

She caused someone's death.

It hits, it hits, it hits until her lungs cave into the bruises, and she completely stops running. It's just in time for Tanjiro to jump in and swing the claw away from her.

"Fujido-san, get to safety!" Tanjiro says in a hurried tone.

Iena complies, and shoots to Inosoke, who looks vexed. She always wondered how Inosuke can be so emotive inside his boar mask.

"Bushido, what's wrong with you?! Why are you always making yourself a target?! Just stay put and don't get in the way!" Inosuke rants, pointing at her.

Target. The word triggers her. She's been a target, and because of that, someone died a gruesome death.

Her eyes narrow. She takes her hand away from her mouth, and her mouth goes loose.

"You think I enjoy being a target?! Every little thing in this rotten mountain has been trying to kill me, what am I supposed to do about that?! I don't put myself in harm's way for fun, you mindless fool! How about you start listening to others instead of being stupid all the time!"

Iena closes her mouth.

Her chest hurts, not only from her ribs but how still Inosuke is, how he slowly lowers his swords as if they're too heavy to even hold, how blood is falling from his wounds like tears. No one's to blame, no one's to blame, she internalizes those words. But her actions are defying them.

Silence between them comes like a prick from a needle, short and painful.

Iena frowns. "Hashibira-kun, I'm-"

Her apology is left in the dust as Inosuke goes off to join Tanjiro. Iena trails him and presses a hand to her forehead.

Everything is getting worse as the night goes on.

Iena thinks of Komi and Nana and relaxes. They would've told her to stop being stupid herself.

'Why are you antagonizing your friend? Care isn't shared one way.' Komi's voice rings clear in her head.

Not everyone shows their emotions the same way.

Iena wipes the sweat off her forehead and looks at the battle that ensues. However, the demon's movements are a little strange. The demon's attack range is shorter than it was before, and the strings appear tighter around the body.

Iena raises an eyebrow. Something happened and it's gone unnoticed. She carefully scans the body from the bottom up and her eyes immediately lock onto the strings.

The strings are twisted from atop.

It has to be from when it was chasing her down. She randomly ran around the area. It must've criss-crossed in its chase. Iena examines the demon's body. It comes to her.

There are two sets of strings controlling the body. The strings attached to the right are controlling the right side and strings on the left are controlling the left; the demon's right hand and left hand. Maybe if she makes some unpredicted moves, it can knot up even further.

After screaming at Inosuke, she really doesn't want to prove him true.

Eyes shut. Eyes open.

Iena sprints towards the battle.

She feels like she's flying and those limpsy chest bones of hers won't stop rattling. Either way, she lands on the battlefield right in front of Tanjiro and Inosuke.

"Fujido-san?!"

"What the?!"

"Weak!" She yells at the demon. "You're weak without your spiders!" She flicks a finger at him. "You just use your strings to hurt people, but by yourself you're nothing! I'm glad I scared them away! Even the small, nasty spiders know you're useless!"

_D-D-DIE!_

Did she hear a frightened stutter in her voice?

_Rui will, Rui will…!_

Iena dodges a claw attack, one strong enough to shred the ground into splinters. She's definitely gained its attention now. She runs from the scene, and sure enough, the demon follows her.

"Fujido-san, you can't!" Tanjiro sets himself to give chase, but Iena throws her head over her shoulder.

"Not yet, Kamado-kun!"

Tanjiro halts and looks genuinely confused.

"You're doing it again! Get back here!" She hears Inosuke's faded demand.

Iena runs in one complete circle. Noting it, she examines the strings. The twists are increasing.

"Change directions," She instructs herself.

She pretends to run in a circle only to turn and cross right under the demon's arm.

"Confusion." She runs straight, turns right, and circles his back, so close the sleeves of her shirt touches his tattered belt. The strings continue to twist and cross, just how she planned. Iena doesn't slow down, not even for a second.

Assessing her movements, Tanjiro's eyes grow wide at the dawning comprehension. "She's confusing the demon so the strings can get knotted." He readies his sword. "Fujido-san, lead it back to us!"

Iena nods and shoots towards them, cheeks puffed in effort. The strings creak and creak as the demon tries to attack, but the knotted strings limit it. Iena's able to swing the demon back their way, and Tanjiro takes this chance to initiate his plan.

Tanjiro slams one palm to the ground and looks Inosuke directly in the eyes. "Inosuke, step on me!"

Inosuke steps onto the box and flashes his swords.

The two shine without the moonlight. Inosuke somehow looks bulkier as he winds his arm back in a long line. In one strong swing of his fanged sword, both of the demon's spider claws are cut off.

"Inosuke, jump!" Tanjiro yells.

Tanjiro is still on the ground, legs in the air, sustaining his balance with his head. His head! All his body's weight is on his head! Iena's eyes become mirrors, reflecting their greatness.

It's beautiful what she sees next.

"Total Concentration, Breath of Water, Fourth Form: Beating Tide!"

Tanjiro's sword becomes a river, slices of mellow and crescent moon waves swallowing it. The water moves with the sword that leads the current and breathes and expands the stream into a path that only Tanjiro's sword can swim.

The waves become her heartbeat.

The sword is a river but strikes like an ocean. It beats into the demon's leg and slices both of them off so naturally.

Tanjiro quickly shoots to a stand. "Now for the cut!"

Inosuke, steadfast, brings down his beast strength and cuts the demon at a slant, from the left shoulder to his right ribcage, reminiscent of a monk's robe.

Iena's wordless, eyes a brilliant wisteria. It rises in her chest, breathlessly strained. Amazing.

The demon gradually disintegrates like ash. Tanjiro and Inosuke breathe little victorious inhales-exhales.

"That was…" Iena murmurs. "That was so cool…"

She stops short of her praise when her hair billows from how fast and sudden Inosuke runs to Tanjiro. She expects he'll maybe clap him on the back or bear hug him over their present victory.

"Anything you can do, I can do too, you dumbass!"

"Language," Iena quietly says.

Inosuke does give him a hug, and to complete the hug, he hoists Tanjiro and chucks him into the air until he's nothing but a black dot in the middle of the moon.

"Wha-?! Hashi-" Iena examines the way Inosuke threw him. He threw him at an angle that curved more to the right.

The way where the woman demon is hiding.

A smile lifts her face. "You did it, Hashibira-kun!"

Iena looks at the boar. Strangely, he's already looking at her. Once he spots her, he slowly faces away.

Iena scrunches her face. What has she done? Just from his posture, she can tell he's dejected. His body is also slashed up now, and she remembers Tanjiro saying he didn't have any more bandages. He used them all on her.

Her bottom lip overlaps the other, eyes set on the bloody bandages on her arms, neck, and legs. Iena hikes her skirt up and unwraps the bandage on her ankle. *****It's the least bloody even after all the running she did.

She fixes her skirt and treads lightly towards Inosuke. Her gaze flits from the bandages to him as she approaches. Shame keeps slowing her walk, but she continues nonetheless.

"Hashibira-kun, You're bleeding," Iena says the obvious. She didn't know what else to start with.

"Don't you think I know that! What of it?" He refuses to look at her.

"You have to clean it a little. Here, I'll help you wipe it." She reaches out, but he swats her hand away.

"Don't come over here and pity me! I don't need that!" He crosses his arms and turns away from her.

"Your wounds…" She trails off, but Inosuke ignores her and puts distance between them. "Hashibira-kun, I'm sorry."

"Fujido-san, Inosuke!" Tanjiro emerges from the dark forest. He seems relatively fine, no slashes, slices, or injuries. The foul demon aura is gone, so it must've been an easy win for him. "Are you two alright?" He asks as he walks towards them.

"Hmm." Iena nods, but she's too busy trying to rearrange her face to not look so crestfallen as she feels.

"Did you defeat it?" Inosuke asks directly.

"Yeah, but are you alright?" Tanjiro repeats, taking note of all the slashes scattered on his body.

"Moshido, now you! Quit it with the kindness thing already! Hear me right now! Anything you can do, I can do too! Before you know it, my head will be harder than yours! Not to mention-"

Throughout his passionate rant, Iena lazily hands Tanjiro the bandage, and he wipes away Inosuke's injuries.

"Stop it! Cut it out! I don't need that!" Inosuke wiggles out of Tanjiro's grasp.

"Stay still, Inosuke!"

Iena looks deep into the forest past the ruckus. She remembers the frightened stutter the demon woman had in her threat. Like she was scared of punishment if she didn't get rid of her, Tanjiro, and Inosuke.

She'll receive no sympathy from her whatsoever. Most of the deaths she's witnessed on this mountain were because of that demon woman. But, it seems her actions weren't from malice but from fear.

From this Rui.

"Rui," Iena whispers.

"Huh?" Tanjiro overhears her.

"When she was attacking us with that puppet demon, I heard her scream someone's name," Iena explains. "Rui."

"How do you know the demon was a woman?" Tanjiro stares at her curiously.

"The big spiders talk. I hear their voices through them. I'm guessing that's how they communicate." Iena tilts her head. "You haven't heard any whispers?"

"I have, and different scents throughout the mountain, too. It's throwing my nose off." He replies, tying the bandage around one of Inosuke's wounds. Of course, this draws many noises of displeasure from him. "Rui."

They leave the area and continue their trek.

Iena wonders if she should tell Tanjiro about what the demon woman said about her scaring her tiny spider allies. She doesn't understand herself. What did she do to cause such a drastic reaction from the spiders? And the strings. She was able to break them all of a sudden when her machete couldn't. The threads' durability could've gotten weaker from controlling people for a long period of time, or maybe some spiders are weaker than the others, which determines the strength of the threads. There has to be a reason, Iena gently rubs her sliced hand in thought.

It's not too long till they near a small river. Iena snaps straight as she recognizes a demon's aura close by.

"It's never-ending," She mumbles, worn out from feeling and knowing it's there.

"What's wrong, Fujido-san?" Tanjiro checks on her.

"I don't know if you can smell it, but there's a demon somewhere over there." She points west.

"A demon?" Tanjiro says, alarmed. He sniffs the air. "The odors wafting around the mountain are making it hard for me to pick up the scent."

"A demon?!" Inosuke exclaims. "I'll cut that damn thing to pieces!"

"Inosuke." He stops his war chant. Tanjiro stares at him, unblinking. "If we come across the demon, you should stay put with Fujido-san."

A chirping silence because the crickets in the bushes have no presence of mind. He isn't wrong. Tanjiro is the only one unscathed.

"Huh?"

"Stay put with-"

"I heard what you said, bastard! Why would I do that?! Shut up!"

"No, it's because you're both injured," Tanjiro reasons.

"I'm not injured at all!" Blood squelches out one of his slashes.

Tanjiro and Iena exchange looks, then turn to him in unison, both staring at him as if he punched himself and got memory loss.

"Anyone with two working eyes can see you're injured," Iena says bluntly.

"If I say I'm not injured, I'm not injured!"

A pair of footsteps end their argument. They stare into the direction of the footsteps.

Across the river, a pretty demon girl all in white, from her hair to her skin to her white yukata. The three teens gawk at her. She returns the favor but with more than a hint of anger.

"A demon!" Tanjiro exclaims.

"This is the one who's aura I must've felt! She's not doing anything yet." Iena observes.

Inosuke lets out a battle cry that echoes around the open space. "I'm gonna tear you to shreds, you damn demon!"

The demon girl moves back a tad, and soon, attempts to run out of sight.

"Get back here!" Without hesitation, Inosuke runs to the river, fire in his feet as he hops across the embedded stones in the river.

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro calls out to him, but the stubborn boar continues to give chase.

"Father!"The demon girl cries, baring her fangs at them.

"Who're you calling 'fa-" Inosuke looks up, "-ther?"

"Inosuke!"

"Hashibira-kun!"

A giant demon, more enormous than the last, crashes into the water from above, splashing half of the water over its bank. Inosuke performs a swift backflip from his place on the stone back to where Tanjiro and Iena are.

The hunched demon slowly stands, gray papery skin turned dark because of the water. He flips his long white hair out his face and reveals a hideous, six-eyed spider face with spiky fangs and saliva seeping from his mouth.

He roars at them like thunder following lightning.

Tanjiro, Iena, and Inosuke freeze in place, watching in mingled horror and anticipation as the thing ambles towards them.

"Stay away from my family!" He punches the ground, an explosion of moist dirt and rocks that spit in their faces. Through the mess, he moves and aims a fist at Inosuke with a mighty, murderous scream.

Tanjiro jumps into the fray. He glides through the air, black sword piercing the moon. "Breath of Water, Second Form: Water Wheel!" He does what he screams. Tanjiro flips and rolls in mid-air like a wheel, the water a fast, sharp torrent.

He spins his attack at the arm, and the blade manages to sink into it, but not cut it. Iena's stomach curls.

"The blade isn't going through!" Tanjiro says in shock.

The demon waves Tanjiro's attack away and counterattacks with a punch. It's a quick attack, quick for the size of that thing, but before it collides, Inosuke intercepts it.

"So hard! He's tough!" Inosuke grits out.

**BOOM.** An outward burst of his arms blows Tanjiro and Inosuke back.

Iena doesn't scream their names. She refuses to draw attention to herself, but watching them struggle like this leaves her in frustration, or more so skepticism. Its skin is indomitable, how are they supposed to defeat it?

A big spider crawls along the bark of a tree behind her.

_Father._

Iena's whole body stops. No doubt, that's the demon girl they saw earlier before she sicked her father on Tanjiro and Inosuke.

_Father._

"Huh?" The father demon stops his barrage of attacks.

Iena spins around and sees a huge spider perched on the tree behind her. No dawdling, no stalling, she picks up an abandoned branch, swings the branch as if it's her own sword at the spider.

_Don't forget about this one. She's the one who killed mother._

Spider guts splatter the tree.

What a blatant lie. Iena's face quivers.

Tanjiro is already running towards her. "Fujido-san!" He must've heard her deceitful voice too.

"Mother! You killed mother!" The father demon screams his wrath to the idle night clouds above, and soon it becomes a race to who can get to Iena first.

Iena easily runs along the river's bank in Tanjiro's direction. He skips and skims through the water as if the river is frozen solid. He arrives at the last second. She reaches out to him and he grabs her hand with a loud, unbreakable clasp. In one strong pull, she's covered in his checkered _ haori_, Tanjiro leaping from one large stone planted in the middle of the river to the otherside.

They descend safely. "You heard that too?" Iena questions before their feet touch dry land.

"Yeah. Now the demon is after all three of us," Tanjiro says, disgruntled.

Iena separates herself from Tanjiro. "That liar," Iena simmers. She was made a target again in an even more grueling battle. It's like they're using her to prevent them from fighting.

"Inosuke!"

Iena searches for the boar until she spots him running from the father demon in the river. "I'm over here!" Inosuke waves his arms and taunts, which upsets the father demon further.

"Hashibira-kun." He used himself as a distraction so the father demon wouldn't follow them.

However, the water slows him down, sucks away his speed, and streams it away. It's the same with the father demon, but it's an intense stalemate.

"This is bad. I have to go help Inosuke, I have to…!" Tanjiro moves his eyes to Iena.

Unexpectedly, the box busts open and one slim leg pops out. Iena's face is full of surprise when she sees Nezuko tunnel her way out the box. She already knew she was there, but it was so sudden the way she effortlessly kicked open the door.

Well, she does open the box herself most of the time, Iena acknowledges.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro says, peering over his shoulder.

Once Nezuko steadies herself, she springs forward, grips the corner of Iena's sleeve and tugs it with haste. It doesn't take long for Iena to understand. Nezuko wants to guide her to safety. She confirms it by pulling her sleeve faster.

"Nezuko." Tanjiro faces his sister.

She faces her brother.

Guilt starts to stir. Iena can see the worry in his red eyes, the concern that maybe he's not too confident in the situation, troubled that he can imagine things going wrong. While Nezuko is a demon, she's still his baby sister, the only family he has.

It's almost as if she's driving a wedge between these two with her burden.

No one's to blame. That sentence is just layers of blurred words now.

"Nezuko, you don't-"

"It's ok, Fujido-san. You two go." Tanjiro cuts her off. He gazes at Nezuko calmly. "Be careful, okay. Both of you, get as far away from here, understood?"

"Mmmpgh." Nezuko nods.

They all shift their attention to another demon roar. "Go!"

Nezuko and Iena flee, dive into the deep forest where the trees filter out the sounds of roars and swords. Their frantic footsteps become the only sound in Iena's ears the farther they go. Iena still feels bad for separating Tanjiro and Nezuko. Despite this being Nezuko's choice, the thought still remains constant.

She doesn't know how many trees and flora they passed, but Iena knows she has to stop and rest. She's been doing too much running all night, and a fractured rib is beating away at her insides.

"This hurts," She says to no one. How were the boys able to withstand this pain?

Iena brings down her pace until she completely stops. She leans against a tree, pale and sweaty and melting away from all the stress,

Nezuko goes by her side, worried muffles whistling from her bamboo muzzle.

"I'm sorry, Nezuko. I'm tired." Iena pants through a weak smile. She is tired. So tired of everything. Iena wants to lie down and sleep. It's way past her bedtime, isn't it?

"Komi-oba." Iena gives more of her weight to the tree.

Nezuko pats her on the head, pink eyes slanted, more so when her eyes wander around her injuries.

"I'll be fine." Iena raises her left hand and pats Nezuko on the head as well. "What I'm sorry about is separating you from your brother." If she wasn't injured like this, Nezuko wouldn't have felt compelled to leave the box. "I'm sorry, Nezuko."

The girl shakes her head no and nods resolutely. Iena's weak smile grows a little stronger. She's gotten so used to Nezuko's demon aura, it doesn't feel uncomfortable or give off a putrid sense. She scratches Nezuko's head, and Nezuko's cheeks turn rosy.

After exchanging head pats, Iena rests a little bit more before they figure it's time for them to keep moving.

Nezuko grabs Iena's right hand. Her pink eyes snap open. "MMGPPGGH!" She screams in absolute pain, it tears Iena apart.

"Nezuko!" Iena cries.

Nezuko snatches her hand and clutches it. Her eyebrows twitch as she closes her eyes.

Iena rounds her and sees her pained face. It makes her panic. "Are you okay? You're hurt, aren't you? Let me see your hand."

Nezuko opens her eyes, glances at Iena's face full of heartache. "Mmmmgh." Once again, she shakes her head no, but a nod doesn't follow after.

"But your hand..." All Nezuko does is pull at her sleeve for them to keep going. Iena doesn't pry.

As they travel down, Iena stares at Nezuko's back intensely. It could have been a latent wound that was dormant until Nezuko grabbed her hand. She and Tanjiro may have been fighting someone in the mountain, and she injured her hand. Iena doesn't know a demon's regenerative abilities. It could be faster than the rate of a human, she highly doubts it's slower.

But, for a hand wound to cause Nezuko to scream in pain like that, it must be severe.

"Nezuko," the girl turns around, "you're okay, right?"

"Mmmpgh."

Iena sighs. That sounds a little happier. "Okay."

_The girl._

Iena freezes like a hunted animal.

_The girl came out of the box_

It's the spider demon girl. Iena's gaze stays on Nezuko, fearful.

_Came out the box that boy had on his shoulders._

_She's a demon, isn't she?_

"Where is it, Where is it?!" Iena sharply turns, scanning their area. Nezuko lets out a puzzled sound. Iena finds a tree with a branch low enough to rip out.

_A human carrying a demon._

_A demon protecting a human._

_I have to-_

The spider that Iena crushes with her bloody hand squeals. It sounds like crackles as it dies and slides down the tree.

"Ugh…!" Iena shakes her hand. She didn't think this through. When she spotted the spider, she was so swift to kill it that she's forgone the branch in the other hand. Now, she possibly has spider inners in her hand. She wouldn't be surprised if her hand winds up infected with the way she's treating it.

"Mmghmmmgh!" Nezuko frets.

Iena pushes her forward. "Let's go, let's go!"

Every huge spider she sees she smashes into nothing. The branch is streaked in vermillion like the tip of Nezuko's hair. Some of it lands on her sleeves, but Iena doesn't care. The demon girl wants to harm Nezuko or elicit someone else to do it.

However, Iena knows she can't get rid of every spying spider in this mountain.

_I need-_

"Shut up," Iena hisses and brings down the branch on a spider like a Hammer striking iron.

_Rui before he-_

Iena knocks two down. She notices the decrease in the number of spiders she encounters.

_He's going to kill me._

Iena casts the crusty branch aside and bends her body over to catch in some breaths. Remarkably, she hasn't coughed up an organ, or slit her lungs with her ribs. It's annoying, it hurts to breathe when she needs so many breaths right now.

Nezuko, with strange hesitance, rubs her back warmly but moans sadly. She glares into the trees, veins gathering on her forehead, a fine line between a low vicious moan and a growl.

"No, we should hide." Iena straightens from her tired hunch. Iena is uncertain if that demon girl will come or not. She didn't do anything when she stumbled upon her with Tanjiro and Inosuke, but that reasoning can't hold up here.

She knows she won't be able to help Nezuko if she or this Rui appeared, and she doesn't know how strong Nezuko is. "It's better if we hide."

Nezuko and Iena find a big bush encompassing a good amount of ground for the two to stay in. It doesn't strangle her like the previous one, but it's still a little unpleasant. Nezuko fares well with it as she sits with her knees tucked up, soft eyes blinking at Iena.

_'This is what I separated her and Kamado-kun for.'_ Iena knows that Nezuko wouldn't like it if she keeps apologizing for it.

"Nezuko, I don't want you to fight," says Iena. Nezuko cocks her head.

"There's a name I keep hearing from the other demons," She presses her fingers together, "Rui. They say this name in fear, so if we see this demon, don't fight."

From what Iena pieces together, it seems this demon clan is run by Rui. Rui is also behind the calamity in the mountain, Iena is certain. That demon is bound to be incredibly stronger than her. "I'm pretty sure Kamado-kun would tell you the same thing."

Iena wonders if Tanjiro and Inosuke defeated the demon as of yet. They were struggling a lot and weren't able to harm the demon with their swords. Inosuke was bleeding profusely the more he fought. Tanjiro also had some scratches.

And there's still no sign of Zenitsu.

Her head sinks.

Then, a cool forehead touches the side of her own head. She raises her eyes.

Nezuko presses her forehead against Iena and hums, warm and mellow. Her black tinged hair falls over her shoulders and some brushes Iena's skirt.

Iena's eyebrows leap like frogs. "Nezuko," she says softly.

Nezuko is comforting her. Her forehead is really cool. Iena's head melts into her cold one like a summer breeze.

Is this what having a younger sibling is like, Iena wonders. Reality, bit by bit, crumbles into sand and the hourglass flips. In those wisteria eyes, a bush isn't what they see. They see a white haired woman, cradling her stomach, her teary eyes downcast. A brown haired man kisses her forehead and rubs the pain away from her shoulders.

And there's Iena, watching from afar with a frown stuck between her chubby cheeks.

The hourglass runs out. She's back leaning heads with Nezuko. Iena pushes her left hand through Nezuko's hair, a serene calm over her body.

However, Nezuko quickly pulls away. Iena looks at her, puzzled.

She gasps most of her breath away.

Nezuko has strings attached all around her body, tight. Iena can already see the idents in her skin.

"No," Iena whispers.

Nezuko struggles widely, kicking and flailing and screaming, but the wires stay stiff and won't break.

"NO!" Iena rushes in to snap them apart, but the strings brutally drag her out of the bush. "Nezuko!"

Iena manages to grasp onto her leg warmers, but she too is dragged out of the bush and into the heavy moonlight. She's able to find ground and plants her boots into the dirt. She musters everything to pull, marshalls the strength from everywhere in her body. The injury on her right hand rages, and the way she pulls, she can feel some skin peel from it.

Her boots skid and screech in the dirt as she feels flimsy, her body lifting as the strings slowly pull at Nezuko.

_It's playing with me_, "Stop it! Leave her alone!" Iena shouts through the pain. In reply, extra strings snake around Iena's hands and arms.

Squeeze.

Her eyes snap open. "GGHHMMAAA!" The pain is worse from before, the strings strong enough cut through her skin with one simple squeeze. The strings around her hands and arms break as blood gushes from them.

Her hands let go, and Nezuko flies away.

Iena's arms are still up in the air. Blood ripples down from her hand and arms, some going down her sleeve to her armpit, some onto her already sullied sleeves. Some catch her skirt.

But, she still keeps her arm raised as if she prayed to the moon to bring Nezuko back safe and sound, bring everyone back safe and sound.

One droplet of blood almost lands in one of her eyes. "Uhh."

Iena falls to her knees. She falls to her face, and presses her forehead to the cool ground, and remembers this coolness against her forehead was Nezuko seconds ago.

Iena wails into the dirt.

* * *

_'GODDESS-CHAN!'_

_GODDESS-CHAN, WHERE ARE YOU?!"_

Without thought, Iena follows for miles and miles.

* * *

A sharp scent hits the air, pungent and rancid. It burns her throat and scratches at her eyes.

She came such a long way, Iena should have known it was a trap.

Zenitsu isn't here, and soon her sanity won't be either.

A house, more so a cottage, dangles by its side hooked from spider strings. It's rotten, decrepit, beaten senseless. Chipped wood falls from the house and scatters like tiny sparrow bones.

However, Iena is too shocked, horrifyingly so, at the humans serving as decorations around it. Those people are whom she must have felt when she entered the outskirts of the area, lukewarm and spooling like warm honey. Strangely, when she was approaching, the feeling would fluctuate and a demonic aura would overtake the human one. In other instances, the opposite would occur.

Now she sees why.

Her face trembles at the people tied up next to the cottage. They're changing, some of their human features wilting away. Hair falls from their scalps and blows around like crow feathers. Several eyes are bulged, threatening to fall out of their sockets. Their arms…

Iena sucks in her lips. Vomit, she feels it in the back of her throat.

One arm is currently turning into a spider limb. The arm dents inward, the hand shrinks, and the fingers stick together until it morphs as one. The bones inside the arms splinter and protrude, the bones wrapping around the arm to form an outer skin.

She can't hold it down.

Iena runs to a nearby tree and vomits. She gags and retches and once done, she slumps against the tree, bark biting into her face.

She feels faint, her arms and legs flimsy from exhaustion. Her face, too, but exhaustion conquered that a while ago. From blood loss, stress, fear, so much fear that she's cracking from how much she tries to keep it stifled. Maybe she wants to see begonias. It'll be the only pretty thing left to see, block her away from the woeful moans of the humans turned spiders.

She'll burst her heart with fear just to see those flowers come.

But, even that was exhausting.

"Komi-oba, Nana. I want to sleep," She says to the wind carrying the disgusting smell above the trees. She truly is tired. "I want to sleep so bad."

In a decaying place, resting on a nondescript tree, Iena slides to sit with flickering eyes. She can sleep for a bit, right. And if a demon comes…

Iena still closes her eyes.

"Oh, we have another one…"

She knew it was there, but she really didn't want to open her eyes.

"I wonder how you weren't bitten yet. Every human who comes near gets bit by a spider."

Iena opens her eyes.

A spider, bigger and hairier than the ones she's been killing. Yet, this one is different. It talks, it has a voice of its own. It has a head of its own.

Iena grows round looking at the abomination. A demon's head atop of a spider's body. It hangs upside down from a long spider string. Its eight legs wiggle in excitement at the sight of her. It sends her a big crescent moon smile, fangs and all. There are too many bad words to describe that sort of smile. His smile touches his cheeks when he sees Iena sweat and shiver.

"Thanks for coming to my humble abode," the demon spider says, his voice a playful threat. He opens his spider limbs in a grand way, showing off his torture garden. "I'm quite sure you've met my other guests."

One of the people tied was almost done transforming into a spider. Iena looks away. The spider demon laughs at her reaction. "They're making themselves right at home, aren't they? Am I not a great host?"

"That's cruel," Iena manages to say. Begonias fill her eyes, just like she wanted, but she's too horrified to even acknowledge those pretty flowers of fear.

"Cruel?" He tilts his head. "Cruel how? I make them feel welcomed, comfortable enough to be considered family."

Iena looks down at the sound of fast scuttling. Her already unstable breathing goes shaky.

A mass of spiders with human heads, waxy white, protruding eyes, hair scarce on their heads, stand by her feet.

"I'm quite popular tonight. A guest that comes soon after the other one-"

"Other one?"

"Oh sure. He's right over there in that tree having a pleasant nap." Iena follows the pointed limb and almost cries on the spot.

Zenitsu is on the tree laid on his back. He hangs on the branch like wet laundry, still and very out cold. He isn't sleeping. He passed out.

"Agatsuma-kun!" Iena dashes to the tree he's on, not paying one mind to the wave of human-spiders behind her. Tanjiro said that he ran off without them the minute they arrived at the base of the mountain. He ran in because of her. He stumbled here because of her. And now he's unconscious, not one twitch his body gives.

"I figured you knew him," the demon head spider sneers from behind her.

"What did you do to him?!" Iena seethes, her teeth gnashed together.

The spider demon is slightly fazed before returning to his malicious grin. "Nothing, really. My oh so generous spiders gave him a nice relaxing treat. The fool passed out on his own."

"I don't believe you." Iena narrows her eyes.

"You don't have to,"he replies nonchalantly. "What I can confirm is that he'll turn into a spider within minutes."

Iena shudders. The spider demon smiles wider. "Yes, bring that face back, the face of fear! I didn't appreciate that angry face you had seconds ago. Doesn't fit you in the slightest."

Iena ignores it and screams to Zenitsu. "Agatsuma-kun, wake up, please! I-It's me, Goddess-chan! Goddess-chan is here, so please wake up! Wake up! Nezuko is waiting for you too!"

He doesn't budge.

No, not another one, Iena squeezes her face, expression strained. She bangs the bark, no matter how bloody her hand is. "Agatsuma-kun…"

The spider demon laughs, his face a dark blue. "Wow, what a show you're putting on right now. I wish my guest were conscious to see this." He hovers closer to Iena, so do his spider human family. He scrutinizes her hand, then lets out an annoyed sigh. "You got bit, so I don't know how you're not affected by the poison."

"Bit?" Iena observes her hand. The thing is right. She has several spider bite marks around her wrist, though most of it is concealed by blood. When did she get these? She didn't feel a thing.

Poison. That's what he injected Zenitsu with. If she doesn't do something, he'll end up like those people, stringed up and deformed.

But, Iena doesn't know what to do.

"Well, sometimes, you gotta do things yourself." He shakes his head. "My poison is-" He cuts himself short. Iena is blatantly ignoring him, struggling to climb up the tree. Her skirt is hiked up and tied to her side, sleeves rolled up. Her arms are tributaries of blood, and oh no, her right-hand itches with pain like scraping needles.

But, her friend is so close. Just a few more struggles, a few more bone-reaching stings.

"Gnnnh!" Iena slips from her position, but she doesn't lose her grip on the tree.

The demon head spider laughs. "Keep doing what you're doing, no matter how useless it is."

"S-Shut u-up, y-you rotten r-reject."

"Rotten reject?!" The demon head spider becomes humorless, loses all his playful attitude, and grits his teeth. "You watch your mouth, you low life human trash! Go, pierce her with poison as much as you can!"

At the anger of their leader, a stampede of human spiders rally together and crawl up the tree Iena is on. They open their mouths and their long tongues with a spike as a tip whip out, shooting for Iena like poisonous snakes.

It feels like they're digging holes into her back, each tunnel through it and her back runs warm, but it's painful warm, wet and unbearable.

However, the human spiders screech after their attacks. Some of them drop to the ground in a bloody acidic mess. A good round of them dissolve on the spot, skin, flesh, and bones.

"What the hell?!" The demon head spider shouts, slack-jawed.

The human spiders who lashed are dying on the spot, brutally, too. It doesn't only leave the demon head spider stunned, but Iena as well.

Regardless, they accomplished what they had to do: Iena loses her grip on the tree and falls.

She won't be able to survive this one. Her body is already weak, ribs already broken. Her head is hazy, and she's a bloody mess.

Many apologies rack through her head, from Nana all the way to her four short-lived friends. But, the biggest apology goes to Komi. When her body hits the ground, she'll cause so many years of stress and grief.

The one thing is that she hopes Komi doesn't hate Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke after this. They've saved her in more ways than one.

Iena almost closes her eyes.

A pair of hands grab her whole body. It jars her and makes her fully aware of everything now. A blond tinted orange hair flies in her face, yellow_ haori_ billowing in the wind. She stares at him in disbelief, but her smile shines through. "Agatsuma-kun."

Zenitsu lands in a squat and carefully places Iena on her feet. How Zenitsu suddenly woke up, Iena has no clue, but she's glad that he's okay. The only thing is that she got her blood on his haori, but there's nothing she could do about that.

Zenitsu is different. He's miraculously silent, serious, his eyes are closed, and he's in a weird sword stance. She can feel it too, a sort of spark or crackle flashing within him.

However, Iena can't focus on her observations for too long. She still feels hazy. Blood loss is the most likely reason. It's making her dazed and sleepy.

The demon head spider, shocked and enraged, yells, "Poison Sputum!"

It spits out a blast of purple liquid at Zenitsu, who's in midair. He effortlessly twists out the way, a swift dodge, a perfect testament to his speed.

The demon head spider kisses his teeth. "Guys, pounce on both of them!"

An army of human spiders jump towards Zenitsu as soon as he lands, but a handful of them are really hesitant to attack Iena again.

"What the hell are you guys doing?! Jump her!" He commands harshly.

Several of them obey, but once they see Iena stepping towards them, they flee over to Zenitsu.

That, Iena cannot allow.

In her disoriented state, she's able to catch two human spiders with as much effort as she can. In her hands, they wail, screaming and steaming in sheer pain. Smoke rises from their bodies like hot tea. Iena is too tired to be confused.

"I'm sorry," she says with lament between the cries of the human spiders "You used to be human, and I don't want to do this, but that's my friend you're trying to harm. I can't allow that."

"Listen to what I say! Kill her!"

Iena drops both of them on the ground and stomps their skulls in. With how much the demon spider head is wailing for its spiders to murder her and Zenitsu, it's a wonder how both of their eardrums hasn't burst.

Blood loss doesn't deter her from helping Zenitsu. He has to focus on the main demon, the big ugly bad that created so many spiders from humans.

The more she chases and kills, the better Zenitsu can attack, flip around, crackle in the air like self-made lightning.

Then the air vibrates.

Zenitsu's hair shoots to spikes

"Breath of Thunder, First Form: ThunderClap and Flash."

Lightning comes, a brilliant shock of white in the graphite sky. Zenitsu is the eye of it. He's bending forward on his toes and becomes a blur to the mortal eye.

"Sixfold."

He splinters every place he lands on, nothing but white and blue all over the place. To the demon that is. Not in Iena's eyes. It makes it more amazing because of it. She can see a bright Zenitsu within the colors of the lightning.

Zenitsu zigzags through the trees, uses the strings to leap his thunderclap to the cottage. Just like Tanjiro and Inosuke's finisher, he awes her, blasting through the cottage and becoming a silhouette in the now yellow-colored moon.

Iena sees something fall from the sky away from Zenitsu.

The way it curses the night sky, it's undoubtedly the demon's head. Iena's face lights up, albeit tiredly. "He did it," It's over.

Iena scrutinizes Zenitsu's body. It's not moving at all, no position to help him land safely on the ground. He's still not fully awake, Iena realizes in terror. "Agatsuma-kun!" She shouts, yet there's nothing she can do about it.

He falls and lands on the upturned crooked cottage in the air.

"Agatsuma-kun!" Iena rushes to the decrepit cottage.

"Absurd! Defeated by someone like you! Someone li-MUUFFGH"

The demon's mouth is stuffed with Iena's boot. The girl is too focused on Zenitsu, she kicks the demon's head out the way that's blocking her path.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

Zenitsu is very quiet. Iena doesn't like that one bit.

Her heart pounds miserably in her chest. "Agatsuma-kun!"

"...God-d-e-ss-cha..." His voice is faint. A patchy, uneven mumble.

Iena doesn't know how to get to him. The cottage is too high, it's impossible for her to get to it. With a hard clench of her jaw, she thinks madly. She can't use the strings, they're too high as well, and while some humans turned half-spiders hang lower than the strings hooked to the cottage, she won't use them like that. Her throat already hurts from the acrid smell and her vomit. She doesn't want to vomit again.

Also, they're suffering.

Iena becomes frantic. What can she do?

In this old-growth forest, the trees look like they can rise upward forever. Iena stares at them. In this grim atmosphere, the trees here are beautiful. And useful.

Iena grips one of her rolled-up sleeves. This time, if she falls, there will be no Zenitsu to save her. No Tanjiro, No Inosuke. Her mouth wavers alongside her conviction.

Zenitsu's loud, wet coughs surround the forest.

Iena heads to the tree closest to the cottage.

_I'm scared, Komi-oba. I want to sleep, and I'm so scared._

Iena remembers the time Komi had her climb a wisteria tree. She accidentally threw a hairpin out the window from the master's room, and the hairpin got stuck into the bark at the top of the tree. Iena had tried many times to retrieve it. The last attempt almost broke her leg. That day, she yelled at Komi to get it herself. That day was terrible, not because she got in trouble for being rude, but because she almost got hurt at someone else's expense.

Iena never wanted to help someone if it was to her detriment. Why risk yourself for people only to end up being harmed in the end?

Especially demon slayers.

Iena pants as she climbs. She tries to find how much handholds she can get from the tree to pull herself up, leaving blood streaks the higher she goes, and because of it, her vision starts to cloud. She pushes that away, knowing if she focuses on that, her vision will be impaired. Her hands drag her up, her feet grab the bark, and the pain from everything she received tonight comes together as one big stab.

She climbs.

Blood runs from her, and she can't see it as soon as they fall.

She climbs.

All she has is the tree, the wind, and a long way up.

Iena climbs.

Reaching for the nearest branch, she desperately grips it and pulls herself up. The branch is thick enough for her to stand on but too narrow for her to spread her feet. However, it had to suffice. It's the one branch closest to the cottage and is above the cottage by at least five feet. Iena swallows.

She can see Zenitsu.

He lays on his back. His face is slicked with blood from nose to chin. He twitches, buzzing like a bug on death throes.

Iena's legs jitter. She can make the jump. She takes one shaky step. It's several feet below.

Zenitsu begins to close his eyes.

Iena jumps.

The wind too chaotic in her ears from the jump, she didn't know how harsh she landed until it went into her leg bones.

Iena gasps, confused on which part of her body to hold in pain. That jump beat her ribcage like a drum and then stung her legs into buckling beneath her.

She falls to her side, but she can't help but lay there, with this, she can finally rest. Iena never knew how glorious it felt just to lay down.

"I'm so tired." So tired, she can feel it in her bones.

Her eyes flutter close, but one tiny glimpse of a yellow _haori_ spread wide next to her, she gets up fast and crawls over to Zenitsu.

"Agatsuma-kun!" She lightly taps his face.

The poison is starting to show; his eyes are glazed, skin terribly flushed, hair falling from his scalp, hands shrunk that it's hidden inside his haori.

He's gonna turn into a spider.

Zenitsu's sick. She's supposed to help the sick, but she has nothing to her name- she never had anything to her name.

No herbs, not even knowledge on how to stop the poison.

"Agatsuma-kun," she calls again, trying not to sound like a complete mess. But, she's beyond a complete mess. She's going to end up losing a friend, and there's nothing she can do. Iena lets out a harsh breath.

No answer. She knows he's still alive, but she at least wants him to say something, anything. Zenitsu, wordless, is so chilling.

Iena sniffles as she rolls him on his side, gently resting his head on her lap. A few minutes after, he vomits blood and _dango_. Iena pats his back like a mother would a baby as he continues to vomit.

"You can call me Goddess-chan all you want. Just stay awake, ok? I don't want to see your eyes close," she tells him, her wisteria eyes so misty.

His reply is another upchuck of blood and _dango_.

She frequently taps him to make sure he's twitchy and there. 'Don't close your eyes,' is her mantra to him.

Zenitsu, then, finally breaths a word.

Iena doesn't miss it. "Agatsuma-kun…!"

"...I'm strong...I s-saved people, r-r-right?"

Iena's chest rises and falls, painfully unstable. "O-Of course," she answers in her sad attempts to be unflinching. "You killed the demon and saved not only me but others from sharing a suffering fate."

"Ahh...i-i-it"s a happy d-dream...I can help people a-and my f-f-friends anytime...Nezuko-c-chan too..."

"Yes." She shakes her head, eyes more misty than before. "It's not a dream, n-n-not at all. You're strong. I saw it with my own eyes! You can help anyone. Y-You have t-t-to stay awake so you can help more people, alright?"

Silence, once more.

"Agatsuma-kun?" She taps his shoulders.

The rise and fall of his chest lessens, and his breathing becomes shallow. Thick, gnarled veins are traveling up his neck and chin.

Iena feels like she's going to throw up again. "There has to be something, something…!" Iena hiccups. Sobs or vomit, it's the same result. "Agatsuma-kun, y-you have people waiting for you! D-Don't leave them!"

Quiet.

Not only did she get blood on his haori, she's getting tears all over his haori and face. "There's a t-tomorrow for you...so p-please, don't c-close your eyes."

His warm aura is slipping away. Her friend is slipping away.

The moon's light feels so cold above them.

Suddenly, a feeling so hot burst in front of her. Iena blinks her eyes wide open.

From afar, miles and miles across trees, blue clouds, and the inky night, fire lights the dim mountain alive. It stuns her. It came out of nowhere and looks like from one touch, it can strike the whole forest ablaze. But, somehow, the fire is gentle

It looks so graceful. The glowing fire leaps and twirls in a fiery dance, twinkling like stars.

"What is that?" Iena gulps some air. It's that breath-taking. It can't be the demons emanating a fire like that. It's too beautiful, too pure, too humble to ever be coming from a demon.

Wisteria petals fall around her. "Wisteria…?" There are no wisteria trees in Natagumo at all, yet she sees wisteria petals drift in the sky.

The petals whisk her to a new place where it's nothing but wisteria and nothing hurts.

She's not at Natagumo anymore.

Wisteria petals are a constant shower around her. Iena is too enraptured by the pink and purple flowers to question anything.

Under a beautiful wisteria tree, a woman dances. Iena can't see her face, only an outline of her moving figure as she spreads her arms wide. She follows the petals with grace, moving like ribbons in the wind. She's timeless, floating and twisting weightlessly across the wisteria tree, poised and balanced like she's made of silk.

Her dance is familiar.

Iena watches her, awed by the way she sways under the tree like she's wisteria herself.

A flash, and the same wisteria tree is in flames.

Wisteria eyes sit huge in her sockets.

The soft flourish of the wisteria tree suffers from the fire. The fire burns holes into the petals, eats them until it becomes parched paper. It gives an ominous glow to the tree and underneath, a man dances. Iena can't see his face, either, just his figure as he dances beneath burning petals. His moves aren't as elegant as the woman's, but he moves with subtle grace and pure passion. His long hair whips about him as wild as the flames swallowing the tree.

Passion at its finest, but pain in its truest form.

Iena recognizes his dance.

"That dance, that's," Iena parts her lips, hands close to covering her face, "t-that's…!"

Who is that man, Iena thinks, beside herself.

"What man?"

Iena gasps at the voice.

The vision of flames and petals and the mysterious woman and man disappear, replaced with sparkling butterflies. They flap their wings soft and gentle around her face.

It's really calming.

"Yoo-hoo! I know the moon is really pretty tonight, but can you answer my question?"

A young woman looks at her through glossy purple eyes and fluttering eyelashes. Pink tinted lips show a sweet yet mysterious smile. Black hair tinted purple at the tips held tight by a pretty butterfly hair barrette, her features look soft under the moon.

"Are you alright?" She asks.

A tear and blood stained Iena stares at her, blank and numb. Her mouth doesn't move. She just shakes her head no and grips Zenitsu's _haori._

The young woman turns her attention to Zenitsu, still unresponsive on Iena's lap. "Are you alright?"

"...Gramps…he showed up a-and t-t-told me... not to g-give up..."

"Agatsuma-kun!" Iena finds her words. She wipes the sudden blood that appears on his cheek with her sleeve. It's a bleeding welt.

"Oh, I see. You saw your life flashing before your eyes." The young woman kneels down in front of Zenitsu avoiding his vomit.

"Who are you?" Iena asks, slightly slurred from her own exhaustion.

With the moon baring the back of her butterfly-patterned _haori_, darkening her already black demon slayer uniform, she answers through her smiley pink lips,

"Me? Kocho Shinobu."

* * *

_***Petal Falls***_

_Petal #33- Tanjiro did hear Iena almost say his first name, but was disappointed when she went back to calling him Kamado-kun._

_Petal #34- From this day onward, Murata commits to being a demon slayer, and his goal is to become a pillar._

_Petal #35- Ozaki had a childhood fiance waiting for her._

_Petal #36- Rui almost sought Iena out because of what she did to his strings when he kidnapped Nezuko. Tanjiro unwittingly stopped him._

_Petal #37- The Natagumo incident is the third traumatic event that happened in Iena's life._

_***No relevant Japanese terms**_

* * *

**Hi, peeps. Sorry for the long wait, but I was really excited to push this chapter out to you, and I finally pulled through. This chapter was definitely not Iena's chapter at all, and even I feel sorry for what happened to her. But hey, this is Demon Slayer, and in the world of demons, no one is safe, especially innocent Iena who doesn't know how to fight.**

**I put an asterisk in the scene between Iena and Inosuke after Tanjiro is gone. Mr. NCT isn't dumb. **

**Don't EVER put your bloody bandage to wipe off someone else's blood. It's highly dangerous! **

**Those three dodo brains don't know because blood type wasn't a thing until 1927 when an Austrian doctor wrote a book about it. It really didn't circulate in Japan all that much. It's way into the 1970s Japan sparked their intrigue and obsession with blood type.**

**Sorry for the history lesson. Don't want people calling me out in the review section! Safety measures!**

**Thank you for supporting this irresponsible jackass called NeverComeTrue. Also, NEW FANART, well two of them were drawn by me, but still ART. If you want to know how to get to the fanart, stop by my profile and all secrets will be revealed. Tell me if you enjoy the music as well, I'd like to here your thoughts about my playlist for the story.**

**Comments, favs, and follows are deeply appreciated.**

**NCT out.**


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